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Gopyriglit N" 


COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 





































f 


9 












I 




# 







Through the Forty Days 


ADDRESSES 


For Lenten and Lay Reading 



Author of “ The Chief things,” “ The Chief 
Dap,” etc. 


NEW YORK 

THOMAS WHITTAKER, Inc. 

PUBLISHERS 





,S (o? 


»r- —-- 

jUBRARY of CONGRESS 
| Two Copies Rec&fdti 

FEB 29 1908 

! — joi-ynK"' titiry 

: H& 4 

iJU-iSS A AXc. piu. 

tq BH'LS' 

COPY a. 


Copyright, 1908 

By THOMAS WHITTAKER, Inc. 






To my wife, whose wisdom and 
goodness have been more to 
me than I am able to express , 
I dedicate this little book . 

























































Contents 


“ Dust to Dust ”.i 

Fasting ........ 5 

“ The Christian Use of Food ” . . . 9 

The Foreshadowing Days . . . . 13 

Going into the Sanctuary . . . .17 

A Call to Courage.20 

An Ember-Day Reading ..... 24 

In the Days of Thy Youth .... 27 

The Revelation of the Unseen . . .32 

“ Ye are the Body of Christ 99 . . .36 

“ Without Which ”.40 

Wheat or Tares ?.45 

To Every Man a Penny ..... 48 

The Divine Providence . . . . .51 

The Best Ambition . . . . *54 

Forget the Past: Face the Future . . 58 

The Empty House . . . . . .61 

Inconspicuous Saints . . . . .65 

The Annunciation ...... 69 

The Besetting Sin. *73 

Sins of Omission ...... 77 

A Pillar in the Temple . . . . *83 

Who He Helped ..86 

If Any Man Willeth . .... 90 


v 








VI 


CONTENTS 


“ All that the Father Hath ” 



94 

“ To Every Man His Work ” 



99 

Comforting One Another 



104 

Going up into the Temple to Pray . 



108 

Pleasing Others .... 



n 3 

Leanness of Soul .... 



117 

Looking and Seeing 



120 

Taking Up Your Cross . 



123 

“ Be of Good Cheer ” 



127 

Our Destiny ..... 



133 

Thoughts for Holy Week 



139 

Humility. ..... 



H 4 

The Mind of the Master 



148 

Maundy Thursday 



152 

“ What Shall I Do Then With Jesus ?” 



156 

“The Spirits in Prison ” 



162 







“DUST TO DUST.” 

Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.— Genesis 
3:19. 

We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle be 
dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made 
with hands, eternal in the heavens.—2 Cor. 6:1. 

Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear 
what we shall be : but we know that when He shall appear 
we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And 
every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even 
as He is pure.—1 John 3 : 2. 

“ Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou 
return.” This was not written of thee, O my 
soul, but of that part of thee that will soon 
perish, come to an end, cease to be. Thy body 
is dust, and unto dust it must return. As over 
millions and millions of other bodies in time 
past, so over thine also will soon be said, 
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” It will be 
said of thy body : not of thee, 

“Dust thou art, to dust returnest, 

Was not spoken of the soul." 

On this Ash Wednesday the Church bids 
thee think of what dies and of what lives. 

l 


2 THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 

Thy body will die. It is always dying, but 
in God’s mercy it has been renewed day by 
day. Every moment of every hour thy whole 
life long God has breathed into it the breath 
of life. But thou must soon part with it, this 
poor body that has sheltered thee so long : 
that thou hast so loved, provided for and 
pampered ; yes, and sinned against. It has 
been the occasion to thee of sin, of sorrow, of 
humiliation, of pain. On the whole it has 
served thee better than thou deservedst. 
While it is still with thee thou shouldest keep 
it in temperance, soberness and chastity. 
Honor thy body : it is the temple of the Holy 
Ghost; then when thou shalt part with it, 
thou shalt have a better body. An inspired 
apostle said, “There is a natural body, and 
there is a spiritual body : ” not there will be, 
but there is now a spiritual body. Nor that 
only: he said, “We know that if our earthly 
house of this tabernacle be dissolved, we have 
a building of God, a house not made with 
hands, eternal in the heavens.” Still another 
apostle said, “ Now are we the sons of God, 
and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, 
but we know that when He shall appear we 
shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He 
is. And every man that hath this hope in him 
purifieth himself, even as He is pure.” 


DUST TO DUST 


3 


u 


i) 


Remember, then, O my soul, how short thy 
stay here is: how soon thou must move out of 
this earthly house of thy bodily frame; how 
soon thou must pass out of the shadows into 
the light that will make manifest who thou 
art. It will be an awesome hour. Mayest 
thou find mercy of the Lord in that day. 
That thou mayest, think, consider now, in the 
time of this mortal life, what will die and 
what will live. “ The lust of the flesh, and 
the lust of the eye and the pride of life,” all 
thy present earthly anxieties, ambitions, hopes 
and fears : all these things that now so engross 
thy thoughts, will die, perish, cease to be. If 
therefore thou livest only for these things, 
then thou shalt perish with them, and of thee 
it may be said as it was of Ninus, the Assyrian, 
“ Ninus, who wore a mitre, is only a heap of 
dust.” 

Ash Wednesday bids thee think of what dies 
and of what will live. It says, “ If ye live after 
the flesh ye shall die, but if ye through the 
spirit do mortify the deeds of the body ye 
shall live.” It asks of thee what of thee is 
imperishable. Soon over thy dead body it 
will be said, “ Ashes to ashes; dust to dust.” 
And what then ? What will remain ? Only 
dust and ashes ? Ashes are what is left when 
the wood is burned and the flame is dead. 


4 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


When, as soon must be, the flame of thy mortal 
life burns low, and finally flickers out, what 
will be left ? The cold dead ashes of a wasted 
life, or a good example, good words, good 
works ? It is said of the righteous, “ Their 
works do follow them.” 

Mayest thou have part with them, O my 
soul: and that it may be so bethink thee of 
what will live: whatsoever has allied itself 
with the Eternal, with the Eternal God 
through His Eternal Son, “Jesus Christ, the 
same yesterday, to-day and forever ”—whatso¬ 
ever is good, true, righteous, unselfish, like 
unto Him who said, “ Because I live ye shall 
live also,” and, “ This is eternal life that they 
might know Thee the only true God, and 
Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” 

Think what He must have meant in saying, 
“ Abide in Me,” and, “ Whosoever liveth 
and believeth in Me shall never die,” and 
what His apostle meant in saying, “The 
world passeth away and the lust thereof, but 
he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.” 

“ Whate’er thou lovest best, 

E’en that become thou must, 

Christ’s, if thou lovest Christ, 

Dust if thou lovest Dust.” 


FASTING. 


When ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad counte¬ 
nance : for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear 
unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their 
reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, 
and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, 
but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father 
which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.— St. Matt. 
6 : 16 - 18 . 

It should be borne in mind that fasting and 
abstinence are Christian only when practised 
for the love of God and His better service. 
The motives that may move men to fast are 
manifold, and not necessarily Christian or com¬ 
mendable. The miserly man may, from the 
meanest motive, be “ in fastings often,” and 
yet for all his fasting, he is a miserable man. 

Fasting and abstinence are Christian only 
when practised for the love of God and man. 
The Church has in her “ Table of Fasts ” only 
two days which are absolute fasts : namely, Ash 
Wednesday and Good Friday. But even these 
days should not be observed as absolute fasts 
by the sick, the very young, the very old, or 
by those engaged in laborious or very exacting 
work. Still, all members of the Church 

5 


6 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


might, and should, make Ash Wednesday and 
Good Friday as strictly days of fasting as their 
duties and circumstances permit. Neither will 
the faithful fail to observe those “ other days 
of fasting on which the Church requires such 
a measure of abstinence as is more especially 
suited to extraordinary acts and exercises of 
devotion ”—the forty days of Lent, the Ember 
Days, the Rogation Days, and all the Fridays 
of the year, except Christmas Day. 

The Church does not set forth a minute 
directory as to the observance of these days. 

It does not publish a list of forbidden foods. 

It would do no good. It might do harm. It 
would be possible to conform to the letter of 
such directions and yet miss altogether the 
spirit and purpose of these days. It would be 
of no avail to observe them only in a formal, 
perfunctory way. To do that might make us 
mere formalists, but it would not make us bet¬ 
ter men or better Christians. 

Let us then pass these Lenten days not 
only in outward conformity to churchly ap¬ 
pointment, but “ as unto the Lord and not ]/ 
unto men.” Not many in these days are 
“ in fastings often ” ; certainly not too often. 

It is a luxurious age. The “simple life” 
is commended but little lived. For a large 
and ever-increasing class overindulgence is a 


FASTING 


1 

constant danger, hurtful to soul and body. 
Everywhere physicians might tell of evil effects 
of high living, of overindulgence in eating and 
drinking. From one end of the land to the 
other it helps to fill the health resorts and 
sanitariums with their unhappy inmates, and 
the benefits received come chiefly from a per¬ 
sistent course in physical culture and plain liv¬ 
ing. Physicians tell us that the chief difficulty 
in helping their patients is in inducing them to 
a temperate and regular way of living. It is 
certainly a difficulty of those who have the 
cure of souls. Their constant concern is to in¬ 
duce those committed to them to “ live soberly, 
righteously, and godly in the present world, 
looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious 
appearing of the great God and our Saviour 
Jesus Christ.” 

But no matter how faithful the preaching 
and teaching of Christ’s minister may be, it will 
avail nothing to those who have no desire to do 
God’s will. For them these Lenten days have 
no attraction. But the time will be welcome, 
and more than welcome, to those who do want 
to know and do the will of God. It is a time 
to renew the good fight of faith ; to put aside 
even allowable pleasures, and reduce life to its 
simplest terms, in order to a better service of 
God and man. At no time will a faithful fol- 


8 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


lower of Christ allow himself or herself in 
known sin. But poor human nature is weak 
and often wicked. It is easy to fall into a 
negligence that often, alas, ends in spiritual 
death. We are so likely to defer known duties 
and neglect precious privileges, that the Church 
has, from the first, found it necessary to ap¬ 
point special times for self-examination, fast¬ 
ing, and prayer. To pay no heed to these is 
not only disloyalty to acknowledged authority, 
but sinful neglect of appointed means of grace. 
To suppose that, whatever they may be to 
others, we have no need to observe them, is 
spiritual blindness. 

“ Forty days and forty nights 

Thou wast fasting in the wild : 

Forty days and forty nights 
Tempted, and yet undefiled. 

“ Sunbeams scorching all the day 
Chilly dewdrops nightly shed ; 

Prowling beasts about Thy way; 

Stones Thy pillow; earth Thy bed. 

“ Shall not we Thy sorrows share, 

And from earthly joys abstain, 

Fasting still with instant prayer, 

Glad with Thee to suffer pain ? ” 


“ THE CHRISTIAN USE OF FOOD.” 


Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, 
do all to the glory of God.—1 Cor. 10 :31. 

In a lecture by Dr. Yaughn on the Chris¬ 
tian use of food, he gives advice which is so 
good in itself and so suited to the season, that 
we will do well in heeding some of his sug¬ 
gestions. And first of all that we should 
guard against mere self-indulgence. 

Few of us, doubtless, would be willing to 
accuse ourselves of excess. It is a reproach to 
any man to be called intemperate or glutton¬ 
ous. Would it were not a reproach only, but 
a calumny, to whomsoever applied! How 
many of the miseries of human life are the 
direct result of an immoderate, or an unmod¬ 
erated, appetite for food or drink ! Well may 
an apostle, writing to a Christian church, set 
this among its chief dangers, “ Be not drunk 
with wine, wherein is excess ; ” place “ revel- 
lings ” among the manifest “ works of the 
flesh ” ; crown the “ fruits of the Spirit ” with 
u temperance ”; and say, “ He that soweth 
to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.” 


10 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


But moderation goes beyond intemperance. It 
is seen, or else missed, at a plain or even a 
frugal table. It needs not for its exercise, a 
festive entertainment, or the company of a 
guest. Three times every day it is present or 
else absent, in the dwellings of a humble com¬ 
petence, no less than in the palaces of extrava¬ 
gant wealth. It is a moderation of quantity. 
There is a point at which appetite is appeased, 
and beyond which consequently food becomes 
not a necessity but an indulgence. But how few 
stop at this point, exercising an absolute self- 
control over the needless fancies of the body. 
Again: there is a moderation of quality ; there 
is that on the table, which we like; there is 
that also which is at once more wholesome and 
less palatable. True, the indulgence of taste 
is not necessarily wrong, but it is that wherein 
we will do well to say with St. Paul, “All 
things are lawful for me, but I will not be 
brought under the power of any,” and so, I 
will say, “ this I prefer, and that therefore will 
I take.” 

Again: there are special reasons such as 
this, when moderation should be not habitual 
only, but special. The days of Lent are of 
those “ on which the Church requires such a 
measure of abstinence as is more especially 
suited to extraordinary acts and exercises of 


THE CHRISTIAN USE OF FOOD 


11 


u 


devotion,” and not to “ hear the Church ” in a 
matter so suited to her care of our souls, would 
be to make one’s self “ as a heathen man and 
a publican.” 

Our blessed Lord gives us direction as to 
how we should fast, as if taking it for granted 
that we will fast. For some, and indeed 
many, literal fasting is well-nigh impossible, 
and a fasting that would injure his health or 
unfit him for his daily duties is neither re¬ 
quired of any man nor would it be commend¬ 
able in any. The individual man is the judge, 
and the sole judge herein, as to his personal 
duty, and yet an abstinence of some sort is the 
duty of us all. A fasting which consists of a 
temperance both of quality and of quantity, 
can do no one harm in body and cannot but do 
us good spiritually when done as unto the 
Lord and not unto men. I speak not of that 
spurious abstinence, which gives up animal 
food, but seeks other dainty fare which is more 
palatable and less wholesome;—careless of 
how much trouble it may make for others, or 
of what comment it may cause. Of such fast¬ 
ing, if fasting it can be called, it is enough to 
say that it has the promise neither of this life 
nor of that which is to come. 

“ Thou (says our Lord), when thou fastest, 
anoint thine head, and wash thy face; that 


12 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy 
Father which is in secret; and thy Father 
which seeth in secret shall reward thee 
openly.” 


“ Shall not we Thy sorrow share, 
And from earthly joys abstain, 
Fasting with unceasing prayer, 
Glad with Thee to suffer pain ? 

“ So shall we have peace divine, 
Holier gladness ours shall be ; 
Round us, too, shall angels shine, 
Such as ministered to Thee.” 


THE FOBESHADOWING DAYS. 

Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but 
one receiveth the prize ? So run, that ye may obtain. And 
every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all 
things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but 
we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncer¬ 
tainly ; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I 
keep under my body, and bring it into subjection : lest that 
by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself 
should be a castaway.—1 Cor. 9 : 24-27. 

The Christian Year may be thought of as 
symbolic of the life that now is, and of that 
which is to come;—Christmas, with its un¬ 
dimmed light and joy, as typical of the happy, 
holy days of infancy; the calm, succeeding 
Epiphany weeks as symbolic of untried, ever- 
hopeful youth, with the dawning days still 
radiant with hope and strength, and the joy 
of life. But then other days soon follow 
fast,—Septuagesima, Sexigesima, Quinqua- 
gesima,—days prophetic of the battle of life, 
and preparatory for its coming conflict. And 
then we pass from the shadow into the 
shades of Lent. Its forty days stand for 
the conflicts of the soul, its temptations, its 

13 


14 THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 

testing, the enemy met in hand-to-hand 
struggle and fought with unto victory or 
death. Finally the calm silence of Easter- 
even, intervening between the gloom of Good 
Friday and the glory of Easter, is symbolic 
of the peace of Paradise, “the rest that re- 
maineth to the people of God.” 

Yes, the Christian Year tells of the need¬ 
ful training and discipline of souls in the life 
which now is, for that which is to come. 

By the merciful ordering of an all-wise 
Providence our first days, happy, sheltered, 
guarded, free from care, toil or conflict, have 
the light and joy of the morning. We are 
not rudely thrust into the coming conflict. 
In the preparatory days we are given time 
to grow in grace, and gather strength for 
the future. The time of temptation is at 
hand, and it, too, is needful in the testing 
and discipline of our soul’s life. 

Not a few nowadays are ready enough to 
keep Christmas and Easter in their way, though 
they think nothing of the preparatory days, of 
Septuagesima, Sexagesima, Quinquagesima, 
Lent and Holy Week. 

It may seem to some that there could be 
nothing better than thus always to walk in 
the joyous days, with an undimmed radiance 
gilding all their way. But that cannot be. 


THE FORESHADOWING DAYS 


15 


No : nor would it be well that it should be so. 
It is well for us that we do not have the order¬ 
ing of our lives. 

A modern infidel orator used to delight in 
telling men how much better a world he could 
have made. He would have ordered life 
without disease, death or danger, but of inde¬ 
structible health and physical satisfaction. It 
was the vain conceit of a man who had no 
sort of apprehension of the purpose of this 
life as a necessary school-time for a glorious 
eternity. Alas, that we so often forget it. 
And so we need to be gently led on from the 
joy of Christmas into the calm radiance of the 
Epiphany weeks, and from thence into the 
shadow of Lent that tells of the race that we 
must run if we would win the prize, and of 
the stern battle of life that should be fought 
under the banner of Christ, the Great Captain 
of our Salvation, that through Him we, too, 
may be victors on life’s battle-field, and, hav¬ 
ing fought the good fight, live forever and 
ever in the light of our glorified Lord. Be 
thankful therefore for these Lenten days. 
Not only do they tell of effort and struggle, 
of temptation, of testing, and so of trial, but 
of a blessed possibility, a glorious destiny, an 
endless joy, the peace of God—forever and 
ever. 


16 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


“ Judge and Saviour of our race, 

Grant us, when we see Thy face, 

With Thy ransomed ones a place. 

‘ ‘ On Thy love we rest alone, 

And that love shall then be known 
By the pardoned, round Thy throne. ” 


GOING INTO THE SANCTUARY. 


Then thought I to understand this : but it was too hard 
for me, until I went into the sanctuary of God .—Psalm 
73 : 15 , 16 . 

You may not, during Lent, be able to be at 
the appointed services of your parish church 
as often as you would wish, but bear in mind 
that there are other opportunities for spiritual 
refreshment. Thus ; no doubt you often pass 
some open church, where you might stop for a 
few moments’ meditation and prayer. 

Some time thus stay your steps awhile to be 
alone with God in the solemn silence of the 
sanctuary. Then and there try to think of 
things as they are, as you suppose they will 
seem to you in the light of God, and of that 
near-coming time when you will go hence, 
and be no more seen here among men. Then, 
as in the presence of God, try to think of what 
you are, and of what you know you should 
be ; of what you have done, and of what you 
have left undone; of a fidelity that might 
have characterized you ; of an example you 
might have shown ; of good deeds you might 
17 


18 THROUGH THE FORTY BAYS 

have wrought; of kindnesses you might have 
shown; of a grace that might have been 
yours; of opportunities neglected, and so, of 
work that now, alas, must remain undone. 

Then judge yourself and God will not judge 
you. Condemn yourself, and He will not 
condemn you, but rather help you to a repent¬ 
ance that needeth not to be repented of, and 
you will find that you can turn back to “ the 
trivial round, the common task,” 

“ Strong in the strength which God supplies, 

Through His eternal Son.” 

It is in the sanctuary of the Divine presence 
that we will find relief from the perplexities 
that so often depress us. It was so in the 
case of the psalmist. He said, “ My feet 
were almost gone; my Headings had well- 
nigh slipped.” Intellectual difficulties troubled 
him as they do us. He could not see why the 
ungodly “ should prosper in the world, and 
have riches in possession ” ; and was tempted 
to say, “ I have cleansed my heart in vain, 
and washed my hands in innocency. Then 
thought I to understand this, but it was too 
hard for me, until I went into the sanctuary 
of God : then understood I the end of these 
men.” There, with God, he came to see some¬ 
thing else ; came to see himself, and said, “ So 


GOING INTO THE SANCTUARY 


19 


foolish was I, and ignorant.” Then seeing 
himself in the light of the Divine presence, 
the fulness of faith came back to him, and 
he burst out into a glowing confession of 
confidence in the loving-kindness of the Lord, 
saying, “I am always by Thee ; for Thou hast 
holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt 
guide me with Thy counsel, and after that 
receive me with glory. Whom have I in 
heaven but Thee, and there is none upon earth 
that I desire in comparison of Thee. My 
flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the 
strength of my heart, and my portion forever.” 
Nor will it be otherwise with us, if trying to 
heed now the Lenten call, we often retire into 
the sanctuary of the Divine presence to see 
things as they are in God’s sight. It will 
surely help us to “ run with patience the race 
that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the 
author and finisher of our faith, who for the 
joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, 
despising the shame, and is set down at the 
right hand of the throne of God.” 

Therefore looking up to God, our Father, we 
can the better say, 

“ Lead Thou me on ! 

Keep Thou my feet! 

So long Thy power hath blest me, sure it still, 

Will lead me on.” 


A CALL TO COURAGE. 


The Lord is my light and my salvation : whom then shall 
I fear : the Lord is the strength of my life : of whom then 
shall I be afraid ?—Psalm 27 : 1. 

What a splendid courage characterized those 
saints of old time. Nor should it be otherwise 
with us. It would be so if we had any ade¬ 
quate appreciation of the possibilities that 
Christ our Lord has opened up to us. All 
that God has to give has been placed within 
the reach of a living faith. 

As St. Paul said to his Corinthian converts, 
“ All things are yours: ” and so it is. Why 
not ? “Ye are Christ’s : and Christ is God’s.” 
“ The Lord knoweth them that are His.” The 
promise is, “ They shall not be confounded in 
the perilous time, and in the days of dearth 
they shall have enough.” Know that, “ The 
salvation of the righteous cometh of the Lord, 
who is also their strength in time of trouble.” 
“ The Lord shall stand by them, and save 
them, because they put their trust in Him.” 
Be this then thy confidence. Learn to say 
with the boy-champion of Israel, “The Lord 
that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, 
and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver 
20 


A CALL TO COURAGE 


21 


me out of the hand of this Philistine.” Recall 
the time past, and see that it has been so. 
“ Remember all the way which the Lord thy 
God has led thee, these forty years in the wil¬ 
derness.” Did He not direct and guide you in 
the way you went ? And how often, too, it 
was in a way that you knew not. How little, 
after all, did you choose the way in which 
you went. How little did things turn out as 
your youthful imagination pictured, and yet 
the Lord led you, many a time delivering you 
“ out of the paw of the lion and out of the 
paw of the bear.” 

You were perplexed, at your wit’s end, but 
He brought it to pass, and ordered your going 
in the way. And as it has been, so it will be. 
To all that are His the promise is, “ The Lord 
shall stand by them and save them, because 
they put their trust in Him.” The Lord who 
has helped, will help. Will you doubt His 
love or deny His power? Has not God’s 
fatherly hand been over you, and His Holy 
Spirit with you ? Know that all His promises, 
He for His part, will most surely keep and 
perform. If faithful for your part, know 
“ that He which hath begun a good work in 
you, will perform it until (up to) the day of 
Christ.” Be it your part then to say with the 
psalmist, “ The Lord is my light, and my salva- 


22 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


tion: whom then shall I fear: the Lord is the 
strength of my life: of whom then shall I be 
afraid ? ” 

If those of old time could show such courage, 
how much more a Christian can. We have a 
hundredfold greater knowledge, and better 
blessings. We know God as Jesus Christ 
made Him manifest to men ; know Him as our 
Father; know that He has for us a father’s 
care, consideration, and loving provision. In 
His omniscience He has ordered our way. In 
His omnipotent hand we have been holden up 
ever since we were born, and He will be our 
guide unto death: yes, and through death unto 
never-ending life, in the many mansions of the 
Father’s house, in which, our Saviour said, He 
is preparing a place for us. He said, “ Be of 
good cheer : I have overcome the world.” He 
wants us to overcome it, too, and we can in 
the power of His might. He wants us to be 
brave, and of a good courage. !Let us be 
wholly of His mind concerning us : for that is 
salvation. That will give “ peace and joy in 
believing,” the peace of God, which passeth 
all understanding. 

“ He leadeth me ! oh, blessed thought! 

Oh, words with heavenly comfort fraught! 
Whate’er I do, where’er I he, 

Still ’tis God’s hand that leadeth me. 


A CALL TO COURAGE 

“ Lord, I would clasp Thy hand in mine, 
Nor ever murmur nor repine : 

Content, whatever lot I see, 

Since ’tis my God that leadeth me. 

“ And when my task on earth is done, 
When, by Thy grace, the victory’s won, 
E’en death’s cold wave I will not flee, 
Since God through Jordan leadeth me.” 


23 


AN EMBER-DAY READING. 


Comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even 
as ye also do. And we beseech you, brethren, to know them 
which are over you in the Lord, and admonish you : and to 
esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. And 
be at peace among yourselves.—2 lliess. 5 :11-13. 

The observance of the fasts of the four sea¬ 
sons is traced back to the Jewish Church, 
which had its fasts of the fourth, fifth, sev¬ 
enth, and tenth months, that every season of 
the year might begin with prayer and fasting, 
“ in order to a blessing upon that which is 
sown in spring, grows in summer, is reaped in 
autumn, and enjoyed in winter.” 

In the Christian Church these fasts of the 
four seasons have been especially associated 
with ordination, and observed with prayer and 
fasting, and more particularly, that God may 
“ so guide and govern the minds of His serv¬ 
ants, the bishops and pastors of His flock, that 
they may lay hands suddenly on no man, but 
faithfully and wisely make choice of fit per¬ 
sons, to serve in the sacred ministry of His 
Church:” and further that “to those who 
shall be ordained to any holy function, may be 

24 


AN EMBER-DAY READING 


25 


given grace, and heavenly benediction, that 
both by their life and doctrine they may show 
forth His glory and set forward the salvation 
of all men.” 

This prayer for the Ember Days is an abid¬ 
ing witness of the interest which the whole 
body of the Church has in the ordination of 
those appointed to any holy function. Nor 
should our people be content to pray only for 
those who are to be ordained, but as well for 
those who have been ordained, and, as St. Paul 
said, “ are over you in the Lord, and admonish 
you.” So not only did he direct that suppli¬ 
cation be made for all saints, but said, sig¬ 
nificantly, “ and for me, that utterance may 
be given unto me, that I may open my mouth 
boldly, to make known the mystery of the 
gospel, for which I am an ambassador in 
bonds, that therein I may speak boldly, as I 
ought to speak.” 

Those that pray for their pastors are those 
that help them, and are helped by them. The 
faultfinders and hinderers are not found among 
those that pray for those “ that are over them 
in the Lord.” It is a very significant thing 
that the apostle prayed to be delivered from 
“ unreasonable , and wicked men,” and that he 
mentioned the unreasonable first of all as if 
intimating that they gave him more trouble 


26 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


than any one else. It is so still. The wicked 
go their way, but the unreasonable we have 
always with us, and so have cause, as had St. 
Paul, to pray to be delivered from “ unreason¬ 
able and wicked men. ,, Alas, we are all so far 
from what we might be, and ought to be, that 
we should pray not only for ourselves and for 
all men, but, for their work’s sake and for 
Christ’s sake, especially for those who serve in 
the sacred ministry of His Church. 


O Lord Jesus Christ, who at Thy first coming 
didst send Thy messenger to prepare Thy way before 
Thee; grant that the ministers and stewards of Thy 
mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready 
Thy way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient 
to the wisdom of the just, that at Thy second com¬ 
ing to judge the world we may be found an accepta¬ 
ble people in Thy sight, who livest and reignest 
with the Father and the Holy Spirit ever, one God, 
world without end. Amen. 


IN THE DAYS OF THY YOUTH. 


Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart 
cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways 
of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes : but know thou, 
that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. 
—Eccl. 11 : 9. 

So said Solomon—Solomon the great, the 
wise, the magnificent. He had drunk to the 
full of all the “ pleasures ” that the world could 
give and at the last, in his old age, he could 
find no pleasure in them. Sated, worn, weary, 
he said: “ Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.” 

Very likely he was thinking of the Solomon 
that then was and the Solomon that might 
have been, recalling his superb gifts, his mag¬ 
nificent opportunities. Perhaps he had been 
thinking of the time when as a boy he ascended 
the throne of David; of the time when God 
appeared to him in a dream by night, saying, 
“ Ask what shall I give thee.” Who ever had 
such an offer ? And yet, with all the world 
to choose from, the young Solomon said: 
“ Give Thy servant an understanding heart to 
judge Thy people, that I may discern between 
good and bad.” 


27 


28 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


Well would it have been for him had he re¬ 
mained of that mind. But even Solomon was 
not always wise. With luxury came tempta¬ 
tion. With success came sin. With sin came 
sorrow. In the end came weariness and a 
dreary gift of years when he could only say, 
“ I have no pleasure in them.” 

Looking from his roof garden wall, he saw 
the young men go trooping by, and, thinking 
of the time when he, too, was young and full 
of the joy of life, he said : “ Rejoice, O young 
man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer 
thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the 
ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine 
eyes: but know thou, that for all these things 
God will bring thee into judgment.” 

God had brought Solomon into judgment. 
In his old age he was paying the penalty that 
always comes soon or late. The sins of his 
youth, of middle age, of old age, had found 
him out at the last. As it was with him it 
would be with all that walk in wicked ways. 
What wonder that he said: “ Know that for 
all these things God will bring thee into judg¬ 
ment.” 

So said Solomon. He found it to be so in 
the days of his sin-darkened old age. Yes, for 
wasted opportunities and sinful self-indulgence 
God was bringing him into judgment. All lit- 


IN THE DAYS OF THY YOUTH 


29 


erature is full of such confessions. On his 
thirty-third birthday—a time when a man 
should be at his best, the very age when the 
Redeemer gave His life for us all—Lord Byron 
said: 


Through life's dull road, so dim and dirty, 

I have dragged on to three-and-thirty, 

And what have these years left to me ? 

Nothing, exoept thirty-and-three. 

He had sown to the wind. He was reaping 
the whirlwind. What wonder that still later 
in his short life he should say: 

My days are in the yellow leaf, 

The flower, the fruits of love are gone, 

The worm, the canker and the grief 
Are mine alone. 

Ah, how many have, when it was too late, 
vainly regretted the sins of their youth ? 
Hartley Coleridge was the gifted son of a gifted 
father. He was young, brilliant, highly edu¬ 
cated, with every prospect for a great future, 
but he wasted his opportunities and little by 
little became a slave to strong drink. While 
yet young he wrote on the fly-leaf of his Bible, 
his dead mother’s gift: 

When I received this volume small 
My years were barely seventeen, 

When it was hoped I should be all 


30 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


Which once, alas ! I might have been. 

And now my years are twenty-five, 

And every mother hopes her lamb 
And every happy boy alive 
May never be what now I am. 

Let us think, however, of the injunction of 
the text as an incentive to noble purpose and 
high hopes. 

“Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth.” You 
may. You should. Know that in doing it 
you have the sympathetic interest of all good 
men and good angels; yes, and of your Lord 
and Saviour Christ, who said: “I am come 
that ye might have life, and have it more 
abundantly.” He would not rob you of any 
real true joy in life. Rather He would add to 
every pure pleasure the crowning joy of all— 
the knowledge of God and the peace of God, 
which passeth all understanding. 

Cultivate then the habit of moral thought¬ 
fulness. To many a young man it has been as 
a guardian angel in time of temptation. With¬ 
out it he will be sure to wander into the by¬ 
paths of secret sin, or into the open places of 
the world’s shame, blinded to the light of God, 
and hardened against the monitions of the 
Holy Spirit. 

Every young man of healthy moral suscepti¬ 
bility will find need of resolute exertion in try- 


IN THE DAYS OF THY YOUTH 


31 


ing to worthily shape his course in life. He 
will find that the everlasting issues are not to 
be left to mere chance, or stray thoughts, or 
occasional efforts. The solemn fact should 
come home to him that moral freedom is one 
of the most awful gifts of God to man. When 
once he comes to see that, he must often say 
within himself, “ My life will take color and 
character from what I am now in the days of 
my youth, and, so, by God’s help, I will try to 
live a clean, true life, with nothing to cover or 
conceal from the gaze of God or man. I can 
afford to lose much that men hold dear, but 
there is one thing that, God being my helper, 
I will not part with, and that is my honor, 
and my self-respect. 

“ Whatever comes I will rejoice in that now 
in the days of my youth, and look forward to 
the future with manly purpose and a good 
courage.” 

“ Draw, Holy Ghost, Thy sevenfold veil 
Between us and the fires of youth ; 

Breathe, Holy Ghost, Thy freshening gale 
Our fevered brow in age to soothe. 

“ Forever on our souls be traced 

This blessing from the Saviour’s hand, 

A sheltering rock in memory’s waste, 
O’ershadowing all the weary land.” 


THE REVELATION OF THE UNSEEN. 


And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, 
and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with 
horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, 
my master ! how shall we do ? 

And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are 
more than they that be with them. 

And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray Thee, open his 
eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the 
young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was 
full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.— 
2 Kings 6 :15-17. 

In commenting upon these events in the life 
of Elisha, an excellent expositor (the late Dr. 
Vaughn, of Doncaster) has said : 

“ In his case those agencies belonged to what 
we commonly call Providence. That is, they 
were concerned about the safety of one of 
God’s servants; they protected Elisha from 
danger; they made him secure amidst a thou¬ 
sand enemies; they made him calm for suffer^ 
ing and brave for action, as knowing himself 
‘immortal till his work was done.’ Was it 
only of Elisha that these things were written ? 
was it only for Elisha that these things were 
done? Surely we have here the very same 
revelation of the care of God for His people, 
which is expressed also, in general, in the 
32 


THE REVELATION OF THE UNSEEN 33 


thirty-fourth Psalm, ‘ The angel of the Lord en- 
campeth round about them that fear Him, and 
delivereth them.’ Oh, if our eyes were opened, 
like those of this young man, what a scene 
would be discovered in this one aspect! We 
go about our daily work, ply head and hand, 
journey hither and thither, reenter securely at 
evening the home from which we started se¬ 
curely in the morning—and in all this, take 
for granted the continuance of life and health, 
of sight and hearing, of reason and memory, 
without one thought of the thousand risks 
amidst which we live and move and have our 
being. If we could see the spiritual world as 
we see the natural, we should find that every 
life is lived in God’s hand, every faculty kept 
for us by God’s keeping, every step taken, 
every word spoken, and every work done, in 
virtue of a power not our own, which both en¬ 
ables and guards, communicates the needful 
gift, and also watches over it with an unsleep¬ 
ing eye. This is the revelation of God’s provi¬ 
dence. This is that world, not of sense but of 
spirit, which the eye divinely opened discerns, 
and the heart divinely touched rests in and 
gives thanks for. 

“ And, if the mountain of our earthly abode 
is thus full of horses and chariots and fire pro¬ 
tecting the godly, what must it be for those to 


34 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


live upon it who account God their enemy, and 
strive to shut out, while they can, the torment 
of His recollection ? We are never alone: the 
little accidents of space and matter limit not 
nor modify the reality of the Divine presence: 
and He who watches over our steps, and keeps 
us in being, and thus gives time for repentance 
if haply we will at last turn to Him, must also 
exercise over us the discernment of His omnis¬ 
cience, and record against us every act of dis¬ 
obedience by which we are treasuring up unto 
ourselves wrath against the revelations of His 
righteous judgment. 

“ And yet let us not so speak as if God were 
an Observer only, and not chiefly and above 
all the Friend of man. It is not to turn us 
from Him, but to draw us towards Him, that 
He reveals to us that invisible world which 
skirts so closely on all sides the region of the 
visible. I know that there are those amongst 
us who hunger and thirst for the revelation of 
the unseen; who would give all that earth 
possesses for them, whether of hope or enjoy¬ 
ment, for one resistless proof of God’s care for 
them and God’s presence; one sure and un¬ 
changing insight into that mysterious reality 
which the Bible and the Gospel tell of, the 
love of a Father and a Saviour and a Com¬ 
forter, ever-present, all-powerful, long-suffer- 


THE REVELATION OF THE UNSEEN 35 

ing, and eternal. Be assured then that that 
presence, that care, that love, is yours, whoso¬ 
ever you be, that will long for it, and search 
after it, and wait patiently and not faint. 
There is One nearer to you than the nearest 
earthly heart to your own, who is the un¬ 
changeable, the all-merciful, the Omnipotent 
God. If you cannot see Him, yet believe: if 
you cannot understand the secret of being, 
your own or His, yet receive it as a secret, and 
use it, and live by it: if you cannot cast out 
the fear, or cannot quicken the dulness, or can¬ 
not illuminate the darkness, which clings to 
you by nature and by the fall, yet look into 
the impenetrable gloom, and act as if you saw 
there the object of your hope and of your trust; 
yea, stretch out towards Him the hand of your 
soul, and pray Him to guide you, unseen, into 
the haven of His presence and of His love. 
When you have learned to do that, there will 
arise for you, by little and little, a light in 
the darkness : the eye, accustomed to long gaz¬ 
ing, shall not gaze forever in vain: thine eye 
shall see the King in His beauty, and behold at 
last the land which is very far off.” 

“Thrice blest is he to whom is given 
The instinct that can tell 
That God is on the field when He 
Is most invisible.” 


“YE AEE THE BODY OF CHRIST.” 


Ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. 
—1 Cor. 12:27. 

“The word was made flesh, and dwelt 
among us ” : and, so, when visibly here among 
men, He had a body, His own human body; 
had feet on which “ He went about doing 
good ” ; hands, to touch and heal; arms, in 
which He enfolded the little children that 
were brought unto Him ; a voice, telling of 
peace to men of good will; eyes, through 
which the Infinite, the Eternal, looked into 
the eyes of the children of men. When here 
in the flesh He had a body, a body in which 
He made God manifest to men. And, now, 
that in that very body, risen, changed, glori¬ 
fied, He has ascended into heaven, He still 
needs a body here on the earth through which 
He may be made manifest to men. And He 
has such a body. It is His mystical body, the 
Church. 

So to the Christians of his day St. Paul said, 
“Ye are the body of Christ, and members in 
particular.” In other words Christians are 
the means of His making Himself manifest to 
36 


“ YE ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST ” 37 

men. He dwelleth in you, O Christian, and 
shall be in you, as He said. In you He would 
still go about doing good as He did of old in 
Galilee and the Holy Land. He would look 
through your eyes, serve by your hands, and 
bless by your voice: be “ Christ in you, the 
hope of glory.” Ah, if we would really see 
what this should mean for us, it would change, 
and really revolutionize our relations to our 
fellow men, and especially to those who are of 
the household of faith. 

Possibly you have sometimes said to your¬ 
self, " O if I could have seen His face; if I 
could have heard His voice ; if I could have 
comforted His soul; if I could have sym¬ 
pathized with His sorrows, and rejoiced in His 
joy ! ” Well, if we want to, really want to, 
thank God, we can do all this. 

Said He not, “ Inasmuch as ye have done it 
unto one of the least of these, My brethren, 
ye have done it unto Me” ? 

Would that we might see, and see more and 
more, what the apostle meant in saying, “Ye 
are the body of Christ, and members in 
particular.” What a blessed change it would 
work in us; what a putting away of mis¬ 
understandings, suspicions, alienations; what a 
putting on of Christ, and that not in word and 
in profession only, but in very deed and in 


38 


THROUGH THE FORTY BAYS 


truth. And it might be so. Yes, it would be 
so if only we would let God come into our 
hearts and minds in the plentitude of His 
saving grace. If we really are members of 
Christ we must in some real way have that 
mind which was in Him. “Ye are the body 
of Christ, and members in particular.” 

But what is the true function of a living 
member of a living body ? It is to do the bid¬ 
ding of the head of the body. Your feet are 
members of your body. By your feet you go 
hither and thither. They do your bidding. 
Your hands are members of your body. By 
them you reach out to this or that: and in 
like manner every living member of your body 
serves you, and every other member of the 
body. What you do, you do by and through 
some living member in particular of the one 
body. But with the paralyzed or dead mem¬ 
ber you can do nothing. It is no help. It is 
a hindrance, a worse than worthless thing. 
Hor is it otherwise in the Church which is 
the body of Christ. The living member of 
Christ must, simply must , be a recipient of the 
life and power of Christ, the grace which 
flows from the Head down, into every living 
member of His body. And, so, the living 
member of Christ will serve Him : must serve 
Him. It cannot be otherwise. The dead 


“ YE ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST” 39 

branch of the tree has really no part in its life. 
Its final fate is to be broken off, or to fall of 
its own frailty. Nor is it otherwise in the 
case of the dead member of the Church. It is 
only by the living members of His body that 
the living Lord can reach out to help and to 
bless. Under God, it is only by its living 
members that the Church, which is His body, 
can be extended among men. Remember this, 
and that “Ye are the body of Christ, and 
members in particular.” 

“ If I have turned away, 

From grief or suffering which I might relieve, 
Careless the cup of water e’en to give, 

Forgive me Lord I pray, 

And teach me how to feel 
My sinful wanderings with a deeper smart; 

And more of mercy and of grace impart, 

My sinfulness to heal.” 


“ WITHOUT WHICH.” 


And I saw no temple therein : for the Lord God Almighty 
and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no 
need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the 
glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light 
thereof. And there shall in no wise enter into it anything 
that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or 
maketh a lie; but they which are written in the Lamb’s 
book of life.— Rev- 21: 22-27. 

Follow peace with all men, and holiness without which 
no man shall see the Lord.— Eeb. 12 : 14. 

In one of his great sermons a great preacher 
(John Henry Newman) tries to tell men why 
it is that “without holiness no man shall see 
the Lord ”: and substantially in this way. 
Some one may say, “ Why is holiness neces¬ 
sary for future blessedness?” We have no 
right to ask the question, and yet, as it may 
be asked reverently, we proceed to state one 
of the reasons why holiness is necessary to 
future happiness. Supposing a man of unholy 
life were suffered to enter heaven, he would 
not be happy there. 

We are apt to deceive ourselves, and to 
consider heaven a place like this earth, where 
every one may choose, and take his own 
40 


WITHOUT WHICH 


41 


u 




pleasure. We see that in this world, active 
men have their enjoyments, and domestic 
men have theirs : men of literature, of science, 
of political talent, have their respective pur¬ 
suits and pleasures. Hence we are led to act 
as if it will be the same in another world. 
The only difference we put between this world 
and the next, is that here men are not always 
sure , but there , we suppose they will be always 
sure , of obtaining what they seek after. And 
accordingly we conclude that any man , what¬ 
ever his habits, tastes, or manner of life, if 
once admitted into heaven, would be happy 
there. Hot that we altogether deny that 
some preparation may be necessary for the 
next world, but that we do not estimate its 
real extent or importance. Many seem to 
think they can reconcile themselves to God 
when they will: as if nothing was required of 
men in general, but some temporary attention, 
more than ordinary, to religious duties,—some 
strictness during their last sickness to the 
services of the Church, as men of business 
arrange their letters and papers on taking a 
journey or balancing an account. 

But an opinion like this, though commonly 
acted on, is refuted as soon as put into words. 
For heaven, it is plain from Scripture, is not 
a place where many discordant pursuits can 


42 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


be carried on at once, as is the case in this 
world. Here every man can do his own 
pleasure, but there he must do God’s pleasure. 
So far as we are distinctly told, that future 
life will be spent in God’s presence, in a sense 
which does not apply to our present life: so 
that it may be best described as an endless 
worship of the Eternal Father, Son, and Spirit. 
“ They serve Him day and night in His 
temple.” Heaven, then, is not like this world : 
I will say it is much like —a church. . . . 

Supposing, then, instead of its being said that 
no irreligious man could serve and love God in 
heaven, we are told that no irreligious man 
could worship, or spiritually see Him in 
church, should we not at once perceive the 
meaning of the doctrine, namely, that were a 
man to come hither, who had suffered his 
mind to grow up in its own way, as nature 
or chance determined, without any deliberate 
habitual effort after purity and truth, he would 
find no real pleasure here, but would soon 
weary of the place, because in this house of 
God, he would hear only of that one subject 
which he cared little or nothing about, and 
nothing at all of those things which excited 
his hopes and fears, his sympathies and ener¬ 
gies. If then, supposing it were possible, a 
man without religion were admitted into 


WITHOUT WHICH 


43 


u 




heaven, doubtless he would sustain a great 
disappointment. He would find no discourse 
but that which he had shunned on earth, no 
pursuits but those he had disliked or despised, 
nothing which bound him to aught else in the 
universe, and made him feel at home, nothing 
he could enter into and rest upon. He would 
perceive himself to be an isolated being, cut 
away by Supreme Power from all those 
objects which were still entwined around his 
heart. Hay, he would be in the presence of 
that Supreme Power, whom he never on earth 
could bring himself steadily to think upon, and 
whom now he regarded as the destroyer of 
all that was precious and dear to him. Ah! 
he could not bear the face of the living God, 
the Holy God would be no object of joy to 
him: and, at last, he would come to know 
that “ without holiness no man shall see the 
Lord.” How forlorn would he wander 
through the courts of heaven. He would 
find no one like himself. He would see in 
every direction the marks of God’s holiness, 
and these would make him shudder. He 
would know that the Eternal Eye was ever 
on him, and that Eye of holiness, which is joy 
and life to the holy, would seem to him an eye 
of wrath; and he would fain flee from such 
a place. Yes, strange as it may seem to say 


44 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


it, doubtless, even heaven would be hell to the 
unholy, for — 

“ There no shadows come between the soul 
And that consuming holiness of God. 

There, face to face, we stand before the Light 
That lighteth all men, and its glorious rays, 

The joy and bliss of all who love the Truth, 

Become, for those who hate the Eternal Fire: 

And Memory dwells not there on former years, 

As now, with pleasant thoughts of pleasant sins, 

But preying on the spirit evermore 
Lives on and on, the worm that dieth not.” 



WHEAT OE TAEES ? 


Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time 
of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first 
the tares, and hind them in bundles to burn them : but 
gather the wheat into my barn.— St. Matt. 13 : 30. 

In this world of mingled good and ill, the 
tares and the wheat will grow together. It 
has been so. It is so. It will be so “ until the 
harvest.” Then the Infallible Judge will in¬ 
fallibly direct the work of final separation. 

We hope that then we will be of the wheat, 
gathered into the everlasting garner of our 
God. But on what ground does our hope rest ? 
Are we awake or asleep to the possibilities and 
privileges that are, or, at least, might be ours 
in Christ our Lord ? How significantly did 
the Saviour say, “ While men slept, his enemy 
came and sowed tares among the wheat.” 

It is always so when we are asleep to the 
duties and obligations of a godly and a Chris¬ 
tian life. Then will the enemy surely sow 
tares in the soil of the soul. What tares? 
Tares of all sorts. The supposition that for 
the present it cannot matter much; that for 
the present we have sufficient excuse for the 
45 


46 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


neglect of known duty ; that it will not always 
be so ; that there will be “ a more convenient 
season ”; that though negligent now there will 
be more favorable opportunities, and that 
though neglectful now, some day we will more 
seriously think of what we might be and do. 
Now that is the very state of mind that our 
Lord warns us against in the parable. He 
says, “ While men slept his enemy came and 
sowed tares.” 

Nor need we be at a loss to know whether 
we are of those that sleep. 

Sleep is a state of obliviousness to the stern 
realities of life. It is a state of unconscious¬ 
ness, of inaction. It is often, too, a time of 
dreams, of hallucinations, and vain imagina¬ 
tions, when we do not see things as they are 
but in all sorts of strange relations and gro¬ 
tesque combinations. “ While men slept, his 
enemy came and sowed tares.” 

Now a well-spent Lent will help us to know 
how it is with us: whether we are alive unto 
God, and what He has to give us, or whether 
we are of them that sleep. 

Should any say, “ How can we surely know ? ” 
the answer may be found in asking, What is 
God to us ? Do we really care for Him ? Do 
we prize His presence ? Do we turn to Him 
in our difficulties ? Do we find comfort in 


WHEAT OR TARES 


47 


knowing that He is with us ? Do we ask Him 
to bless us in our enjoyments, as well as sym¬ 
pathize with us in our sorrows ? 

The Christian who can call God his Father, 
and really mean it, is one who is not asleep, 
but alive unto God, and to what God is to 
him. Such a one can say, “ He is at my right 
hand : I shall not be moved.” “ The Lord is 
my light and my salvation ; whom then shall 
I fear: the Lord is the strength of my life; of 
whom then shall I be afraid ? ” 

“ All the world is God’s own field, 

Frnit unto His praise to yield; 

Wheat and tares together sown, 

Unto joy or sorrow grown : 

First the blade, and then the ear, 

Then the full corn shall appear : 

Grant, O harvest Lord, that we 
Wholesome grain and pure may be.” 


TO EVERY MAN A PENNY. 

They received every man a penny.— St. Matt. 20 : 9. 

The householder is represented in the para¬ 
ble as giving to every man a penny. It was 
the reward of those that had “ wrought but 
one hour ” as well as of those that had “ borne 
the burden and heat of the day.” And so the 
unwarrantable inference is sometimes made 
that there will be no difference of condition or 
degree in the life of the world to come; that all 
there will be on the same plane and level, and 
heaven no more to a St. Peter or a St. Paul 
than to any one else. The inference is unwar¬ 
rantable, not only contrary to what reason 
would lead us to expect, but to the plain teach¬ 
ing of holy Scripture. 

Our Lord says, “ In My Father’s house are 
many mansions ” (abiding-places) and an apos¬ 
tle says that “each shall receive his own re¬ 
ward, according to his own labor ” ; and again, 
“ There is one glory of the sun, and another 
glory of the moon, and another glory of the 
stars ; for one star differeth from another star 
in glory. So also is the resurrection of the 
dead.” 


48 


TO EVERY MAN A PENNY 


49 


Even though God’s gifts be the same, they 
will, nevertheless, be to each one of us what 
we may make them. This world has for ages 
been substantially what it is now, and yet 
what a different world it has been to the dif¬ 
ferent nations and generations. 

Though in itself the same the world is one 
thing to one man and quite another thing to 
another. And, no doubt, it will still be so 
even when we have passed on into the Great 
Beyond. In Himself God is the same, always, 
and yet how different He seems to men. In 
Himself Jesus Christ is “ The same, yesterday, 
to-day and forever,” but to one man He seems 
only as a man who lived and died long ago, 
while to us He is the living Lord unto whom 
“all power is given in heaven and earth.” 
The Scriptures, the sacraments, all appointed 
means of grace, are in themselves the same, 
but to each one of us what we choose to make 
them. These Lenten days are in themselves 
always the same, rich in blessing, but to many 
they are no more than any other days, while 
to us, if we will to have it so, every one of 
these forty days may be made a means of 
growth in grace, and in the knowledge of our 
Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. If we keep 
Lent as unto the Lord we will win from it a 
lasting blessing, for there is no blessing better 


50 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


worth having than the mastery of self and 
of sin, which is the blessing we seek in a right 
use of Lent. 

“ Lord in this Thy mercy’s day, 

Ere the time shall pass away, 

On our knees we fall and pray. 

“ Lord, on us Thy Spirit pour, 

Kneeling lowly at Thy door, 

Ere it close forevermore. ’ 1 


THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 


The Lord ordereth a good man’s going, and maketh his 
way acceptable to Himself.— Psalm 37 : 23. 

Seized with a mortal illness a great Ameri¬ 
can soldier passed his last days in writing the 
two thick books of his very interesting memoirs. 
Knowing that his way in this world was 
rapidly drawing to an end, there came to him 
a solemn sense of God’s gracious guidance, 
and so he began his memoirs by saying, 
“ ‘ Man proposes and God disposes.’ There are 
but few important steps in the affairs of men 
brought about by their own choice.” 

God’s overruling hand may seem more 
manifest in the case of such a man, but it is 
just as real in the lot of the lowly, as in the 
case of those that sit in the seats of the 
mighty. We should all rejoice in knowing 
that “ His mercy is over all His works,” and 
that “ in Him we live, and move, and have 
our being.” His Providence is for all men, 
and rules all men, and provides for all men, 
and blesses all men in proportion as they are 
willing to be blessed. If His love is per¬ 
fected in us—says Bishop Thorold—then indeed 
51 


52 


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are we safe and happy; if it is only on His 
side towards us, and not on ours towards Him, 
then though His sun equally shines, His rain 
equally descends on us, in the higher purpose 
of His mercy He waits to be gracious ; stand¬ 
ing at the door of our heart and knocking, 
He remains outside till we let Him in. There 
are many ways, were they needed, of proving 
this Providence of His universal love. We 
who love Him now can perhaps recall the time 
when we did not love Him, did not even wish 
to please Him. Yet did He not watch over 
us then, biding His opportunity ? Did our 
coldness quench the flame of His love, did our 
turning away make Him less mighty to save ? 
We love Him, because He first loved us. This 
is indeed the account that every soul conscious 
of its acceptance gives to itself of its salvation. 
But what has been true of us is true of others. 
God gave His Son to redeem the world, be¬ 
cause He loved the world, and whom He loves 
He would save. Let us then thankfully rec¬ 
ognize a Divine Providence not only watching 
over us but over all men, if by all means He 
may save some ; and let this be the ground of 
our confidence, the strength of our hope, the 
power of our prayers, for those dear to us, 
who are as yet living as if without God in the 
world. We should not cease to hope for them. 


THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE 


53 


God’s Providence has not yet been fulfilled 
in them. He bears with them still. He loves 
them still for all their wilfulness and way¬ 
wardness. In ways we wot not of He 
often brings the wanderer back. It may be, 
and often is, by a stern hard discipline. His 
hand is over them still, and while we follow 
them with our prayers, we must leave them 
to Him, who can do, and is doing for them 
all He can. Yes, He is doing for them, and 
for us, all He can. He does not force His 
way into their hearts, or ours. He waits for 
an opening door, and often long stands wait¬ 
ing, but ever ready to come in with blessing 
to such as will to receive it. Now as of old, 
to as many as receive Him, gives He power 
to become the Sons of God, not in possibility 
only, but in very deed and truth. He cannot 
help those who do not will to be helped, but 
He is always helping the helpable, and bless¬ 
ing the blessable, and saving the savable. 
So we have right to say with Him who 
said — 


“ I say to thee, do thou repeat 
To the first man thou mayest meet, 
In lane, highway, or open street; 
That he, and we, and all men move 
Under a canopy of love, 

As broad as the blue sky above .’ 1 


THE BEST AMBITION. 


He was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost, and of 
faith .—Acts 11: 24. 

This was said of St. Barnabas. It is the 
record of a good man’s life. To be good and 
to do good, that by God’s grace is in the power 
of us all. And what better ambition could 
characterize us ? To be good ; to be guided by 
the Spirit; to walk by faith and not by sight— 
this is to be in the way of helpfulness, of hope 
and comfort to those around us. It is to put 
on Christ, not in word and profession only, but 
in very deed and truth. It is to be made like 
unto Him whose life among men was summed 
in saying, “ He went about doing good.” It 
should be the purpose of us all, and it might 
be. There is much that we cannot be. It is 
the lot of few, very few, to be numbered with 
the gifted or the great among men, but it is in 
the power of us all to be good, and if we are 
good we will surely “ go about doing good.” 
And how much more it is to be good than 
merely to be great, or to seem great. Ten¬ 
nyson often wrote in a loftier, but seldom in a 
wiser way, than when he said: 

54 


THE BEST AMBITION 


55 


“ Howe’er it be, it seems to me 
’Tis only noble to be good, 

Kind hearts are more than coronets, 

And simple faith than Norman blood.” 

What the world counts greatness comes to 
few, very few, and, too, often by the mere ac¬ 
cident of birth, or of unusual opportunity more 
than by extraordinary merit. God seems to 
need the good much more than the great. In 
fact to Him the good are the great, and by 
His help, to be good is a possibility to every 
one. 

It is God’s will concerning us: and what He 
wills, He will effect in us if we will let Him. 
If we freely will for ourselves that which He 
wills for us, then the grace that He is waiting 
to give, will have free course in us, enabling us 
to be that which of ourselves we could not be. 
No good thing will He withhold from them 
that live a godly life. Aye more, there is 
nothing good for us that He is not even now 
giving us if we will to receive it of Him. He 
does not force on us His gifts. The soul that 
does not will to have them cannot receive 
them. The Gospel message is to whosoever 
willeth to profit thereby. As the Psalmist said, 
“ My soul is always in my hand ”: in my hand 
to give to God—or, in my hand to shut out 
from blessing. It is as we will. God does 


56 THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 

not force His grace on the unwilling soul, but 
He ever waits and longs for place in us. The 
ever-patient Saviour says : “ Behold, I stand 

at the door and knock: if any man hear My 
voice and open the door, I will come in to him, 
and will sup with him, and he with Me.” 

Yes, Christ in us wills to do still among men 
what He did of old in Galilee; would fain still 
“ go about doing good,” and in us and through 
us, bring blessing to those around us. 

To serve them is to serve Him : and to Him, 
to serve is to be great. “ Whosoever will be 
great among you, let him be your minister: 
and whosoever will be chief among you, let 
him be your servant.” 

To Him service is the measure of greatness. 
It is to be great not in mere state, or circum¬ 
stance, or in that which is exterior to us, but 
in our inmost selves, in our own soul’s life. 
So He said, “ Whosoever will be great among 
you, shall be your minister.”,! 

And what ample opportunity we have to 
serve. The poor we have always with us, not 
only the poor in purse, but the poor in spirit, 
those to whom in one way or another has come 
deprivation, pain, or loss of hope in life, and to 
such we might be, as was Barnabas, “ a son of 
consolation.” 

In so doing we will in the day of final 


THE BEST AMBITION 


57 


destiny, inherit the promise of Him who will 
say, “ Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the 
least of these ye have done it unto Me ”: 
“ Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” Then 
for us will “ the long beatitudes begin.” 

“ Jesu, in mercy bring ns 
To that dear land of rest! 

Who art with God the Father, 

And Spirit, ever blest.’* 



FORGET THE PAST: FACE THE 
FUTURE. 


Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended; but 
this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are be¬ 
hind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 
I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of 
God in Christ Jesus. —Phil. 3 :13-14. 

The past is. It cannot be brought back: 
cannot be undone. It may be a matter of great 
regret, and, alas, sometimes of great sorrow, 
but it is the past and always will be. You 
may call for it but it is gone; gone forever. 
We should see that it is so, and act accord¬ 
ingly. For our past mistakes we must have 
sincere regrets, and for our sins sorrow. But 
if they have caused a “ repentance to salvation 
not to be repented of,” they have been for¬ 
given for Jesus Christ’s sake. As for the past 
therefore we cannot do better than say as did 
St. Paul, “ forgetting those things which are 
behind, and reaching forth unto those things 
which are before, I press towards the mark for 
the prize of the high calling of God in Christ.” 

Our help is in Him. Let us look to Him, 
and be of a good courage, believing that He 
58 


FORGET THE PAST : FACE THE FUTURE 59 

can, and will, deliver us “ from the bands of 
those sins which by our frailty we have com¬ 
mitted.” He wants to help us, and is helping 
us. A sincere desire to do His will should keep 
us from serious sin. He came to save us from 
our sins; to take them away; to free us from 
them. A godly purpose should keep us from 
deadly sin, and by God’s grace it will. God 
is for us: not against us. The infinite love, 
the infinite knowledge and the infinite power 
of God are working together for our good, al¬ 
ways, day and night, night and day, every 
moment of every hour, every hour of every day. 
“ He giveth His beloved in sleep, that is whilst 
they sleep.” If then we are workers together 
with Him all will be well. We can therefore 
fearlessly face the future, believing that God can 
even turn the failures and follies of the past 
into a certain sort of good to us. His wisdom 
can overrule even our error, and of His mercy 
He will forgive our weakness. “ If (a wise man 
has said) through our fault, not His, our pas¬ 
tures have not been as green, our waters not 
as still as they might have been, we may thank 
Him if He has made the way of our own will 
hard and humbling for us.” To be taught to 
trust God, through suffering the consequences 
of mistrust, is a lesson worth learning, though 
perhaps at the price of much sorrow. Never- 


60 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


theless, whatever our waywardness and wilful¬ 
ness, as we look back and count up our past 
blessings, they may well fill our heart with 
thankfulness. And so, dark as the day may 
have been, “ at evening time it shall be light.” 
Sometimes our path in life may seem like a 
lane full of weary windings, where the steep 
banks shut out the light and air, and all we 
can do is to trudge steadily on through the 
mud and mire. But if we look high up in 
front of us, we shall see, as Israel saw, the 
faint blue hills of the Land of Promise rising up 
against the sky; and the path will come out at 
length in full view of the Celestial City: and 
at last we shall be at home. 

“ Weary deserts we may tread, 

A dreary labyrinth may thread, 

Through dark ways underground be led ; 

Yet if we will our Guide obey, 

The dreariest path, the darkest way, 

Shall issue out in heavenly day.” 


THE EMPTY HOUSE. 


When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh 
through dry places, seeking rest: and finding none, he saith, 
I will return unto my house from whence I came out. And 
when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then 
goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked 
than himself ; and they enter in, and dwell there; and the 
last state of that man is worse than the first.— St. Luke 11 : 
24, 25, 26. 

You have all noticed the difference, the 
striking difference, between the occupied and 
the empty house. The one has a look of life 
and thrift, and the other is a dreary soulless 
thing. The occupied house not only looks bet¬ 
ter but is better: whereas the unoccupied house 
is, just from being empty, sure to suffer for it. 
Nor is it otherwise in the case of the unoccu¬ 
pied soul. It cannot safely remain empty. If 
not filled with good things it will gather in 
evil things to its hurt, and possible ruination. 

“ When the unclean spirit is gone out of a 
man, he walketh through dry places, seeking 
rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return 
unto my house whence I came out. And when 
he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. 
Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other 
spirits more wicked than himself; and they 
61 


62 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of 
that man is worse than the first.” 

In these words of our blessed Lord we have, 
no doubt, reference to spiritual conditions 
which were open to Him, however obscure and 
strange they may seem to our sin-dimmed 
sight. But, making no effort to penetrate to 
that which is beyond us, we can, and should, 
find in this teaching of our Lord a meaning 
which we need, and greatly need, to heed. 
And it is that bad habits cannot be overcome 
by good resolutions only; that it is not enough 
to cast out the evil spirit: we must give room 
to a good spirit, and above all have place for 
the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, 
the one Source of abiding strength and grace. 

It is not enough to leave the soul “ swept 
and garnished.” If left unoccupied the evil 
spirit will return with sevenfold strength, “ and 
the last state of that man will be worse than 
the first.” 

The trouble with the many is not that they 
never want to do better and be better, but that 
they do not see that they need a Saviour. 

They often try to amend, but only in their 
own strength, and finally failing, think it is of 
no use to try any longer. So they fall back 
into the bad habit with a greater abandon than 
ever. The evil spirit returns in sevenfold 


THE EMPTY HOUSE 


63 


power, and the man is worse than he was be¬ 
fore. He wanted to be better, and for a time 
he was, but the place of the bad habit was not 
filled by a good habit. The companions that 
led into temptation were avoided, but their 
place was not taken by those who would help. 
The evil spirit was resisted, but the Holy Spirit 
was not heeded. What wonder that as he 
grew weary in lonely struggle the old tempta¬ 
tion would return in a power that he could not 
withstand. How suppose that instead of try¬ 
ing to reform in his own strength only, the 
man had said to himself, “ How is it that I am 
in this evil case ? How is it that I am thus 
tempted ? How is it that, knowing what is 
right, I want to do what is wrong ? Who shall 
deliver me from the body of this death ? ” 

Then surely he would have seen the need of 
a Saviour; would have seen what Christ meant 
in saying, “ Ye must be born from above,” and 
what His apostle meant in saying, “If any 
man be in Christ, he is a new creature.” The 
great trouble with us after all is that we do 
not go deep enough. We do not recognize the 
condition we are in: for, how is it that we fall 
into evil ways ? How comes it that we sin, 
and so sadly come short of being what we 
should be ? 

It is because we belong to a sinful race that 


64 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


needs redemption; salvation from sin, help from 
above, the imparted strength of a Lord and 
Master mighty to save. 

“ Lord, comest Thou to me? 

My heart is cold and dead : 

Alas that such a heart should be 
The place to lay Thy head. ” 


THE INCONSPICUOUS SAINTS. 


One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, 
was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first findeth his 
own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the 
Messias : which is, being interpreted, the Christ. And he 
brought him to Jesus.— St. John 1: 40-42. 

This is the way in which St. Andrew made his 
conversion forever memorable in the Church. 
It is not much that we know of him, but the lit¬ 
tle that we do know is enough to keep his 
name in grateful and abiding remembrance. 
It is much, very much, that he made his con¬ 
version memorable by at once bringing others 
to Christ, and first of all his own brother. If 
Andrew himself was not to take a great, or 
even conspicuous place, in the history of the 
Church or of the world, it was his part to bring 
to Jesus one who did. In bringing to Christ 
“ his own brother, Simon,” he did that which 
alone was of inestimable worth. He is three 
times told of as bringing others to Jesus, and 
further than this we know but little of him, 
and of his work for God and man. But to do 
what Andrew did ; to bring others to Christ; 
to set forward the Kingdom of God; to be a 
65 


66 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


blessing to those around us; to be ourselves in¬ 
conspicuous while bringing others to honor and 
place and power; to humbly and quietly do 
what we can, the work God has given us, con¬ 
tent to serve where it is appointed us, and 
finally disappear from the sight and knowledge 
of men, this may seem, and is, an inglorious lot 
in the eyes of the world, but it is the appointed 
lot of the many. And what more need we 
look for, if, in truth, our highest hope is to pass 
our appointed time here in the love of God, 
and then live forever and forever in the light 
of our glorified Lord ? 

“ If on our daily course our mind 
Be set to hallow all we find, 

New treasures still, of countless price, 

God will provide for sacrifice. 

“ The trivial round, the common task, 

Will furnish all we need to ask; 

Room to deny ourselves, a road 
To bring us daily nearer God.” 


If ever tempted to repine over our lot in life 
we will do well to bear in mind that “ those 
are not necessarily the most useful in their 
generation, nor the most favored of God, who 
make the most noise in the world, and who 
seem to be principals in the great changes and 
events recorded in history. On the contrary, 


THE INCONSPICUOUS SAINTS 


67 


even when we are able to point to a certain 
number of men as the real instruments of any 
great blessing vouchsafed to mankind, our rela¬ 
tive estimate of them, one with another, is 
often very erroneous; so that, on the whole, 
if we would trace truly the hand of God in 
human affairs, and pursue His bounty as dis¬ 
played in the world to its original sources, we 
must unlearn our admiration of the powerful 
and distinguished, and turn our eyes to private 
life, watching in all we read or witness for the 
true signs of God’s presence, the graces of per¬ 
sonal holiness manifested in His elect; which 
weak as they may seem to mankind, are 
mighty through God, and have an influence on 
the course of His Providence, and bring about 
events in the world at large, when the wisdom 
and strength of the natural man are of little 
or no avail. 

A well-spent Lent will correct our faulty es¬ 
timate of things, and give us something of that 
mind which was in Christ our Lord who said, 
“ Whosoever will be chief among you, let him 
be your servant; even as the Son of man 
came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, 
and to give His life a ransom for many.” 

“ When God’s great Angel 

Cries alond the deeds of might, 

At the great day when hearts are open 


68 THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 

In the Holy Father’s sight, 

Then the greatest deeds and noblest, 

Will be those unheard of now, 

Hidden under silent heart-beats, 

And an uncomplaining brow, 

Deeds of patient self-rejection, 

Wrung from hearts that made no moan 
Tender hearts that like the Master’s 
Trod the wine-press all alone.” 


THE ANNUNCIATION. 


And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou art 
highly favored, the Lord is -with thee : blessed art thou 
among women.— St. Luke 1 : 28. 

Little, very little, is told us in the Gospels, 
of that sweet and saintly soul who found such 
favor with God that it was her blessed lot to 
be the mother of our Lord. Her home was 
amidst the Galilean hills. She had, doubtless, 
lived all her life in Galilee, growing up, like 
the Annunciation lily, in the humble unob¬ 
trusiveness of perfect purity and peace. 

True, the legendary story that relates the 
circumstances of the great announcement is 
not history, and yet its idyllic simplicity is so 
in keeping with all that is told us in the Gos¬ 
pels, that it would seem more than possible 
that something of real history has come down 
to us in its account of how the fact of the 
Incarnation was made known by the message 
of an angel. The legend is that it was at the 
fresh dawn of day that one morning the 
Blessed Virgin went to draw water from the 
fountain by the northern wall of Nazareth, 
and as she drew near the arch-covered fount, 
69 


TO THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 

the angel appeared, saying: “ Hail! thou art 

highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed 
art thou among women.” And when she was 
troubled at his saying, “ the angel said unto 
her, Fear not, Mary; for thou hast found favor 
with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive 
in thy womb, and bring forth a Son, and shalt 
call His name Jesus. He shall be great, and 
shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the 
Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of 
His father David. And He shall reign over 
the house of Jacob forever; and of His king¬ 
dom there shall be no end.” 

The intimation was added that she should 
seek out her cousin Elizabeth, who also, she 
was assured, had found favor with God. “And 
Mary arose in those days, and went into the 
hill-country with haste, into a city of Juda, 
and entered into the house of Zacharias, and 
saluted Elizabeth.” 

To Elizabeth also, had been granted the 
dearest desire of a Jewish woman’s heart, and 
Mary naturally turned to her for womanly 
sympathy and confidences that could be held 
with no one else in all the world. 

What tender, incommunicable thoughts must 
have been hers as she went her way over the 
hill-country to her cousin’s house! She had, 
doubtless, pondered long over the startling 


THE ANNUNCIATION 


71 


nature of the angel’s message, and, lo, as she 
entered the house of Zacharias, the assurance 
of the angel was promptly confirmed by the 
sympathetic salutation of her cousin, who was 
herself also wonderfully associated with the 
promised redemption. Elizabeth said, “ Blessed 
art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit' 
of thy womb. And whence is this to me that 
the mother of my Lord should come to me ? ” 
Then it was that Mary’s full heart found ut¬ 
terance in the noble words of the Magnificat. 
They witness to their authenticity, and simply 
from a literary standpoint the Magnificat is 
unique, unapproachable. There is nothing 
like it. Its delicacy, its sweetness, its lofti¬ 
ness is inimitable. It belongs to the highest 
kind of inspirational utterance and yet is not 
without its personal quality. Not only was it 
inspired by the Spirit of all Truth, but it was 
also a real reflection of the lofty thoughts of 
the Virgin. And what a revelation it is of 
sweetness and strength ! What wonder that 
Elizabeth was moved to say, “ Blessed art thou 
among women! ” 

There is in the Magnificat no trace of self- 
consciousness or complaisance, but because she 
was to be a means of blessing to all human¬ 
kind well might she magnify the Lord. To be 
a blessing that was indeed cause for thanks- 


72 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


giving. What a revelation it was of high 
womanhood! yes, and of sainthood also. 
“From henceforth all generations shall call 
me blessed.” Who could withhold from the 
Blessed Virgin her beatitude ? 

“Oh, not in vain we iearn’d of old thy lowly strain, 

Fain in thy shadow would we rest, 

And kneel with thee, and call thee blest: 

With thee would magnify the Lord, 

And if thou art not here adored, 

Yet seek we day by day, the love and fear, 

Which brings thee, with all saints, near and more near.” 


THE BESETTING SIN. 


"Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so 
great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and 
the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with 
patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus 
the author and finisher of our faith.— Eeb. 12 : 1, 2. 

The besetting sin is the sin which most 
closely clings to us ; which entangles our feet; 
causes us to fall and keeps us from running 
“ with patience the race that is set before us.” 
It may be any one of a hundred or more sins, 
such as pride, vanity, self-will, avarice, lazi¬ 
ness, bad temper, self-conceit, greed, intem¬ 
perance and the like. You, yourself, should 
be best able to make a diagnosis of that par¬ 
ticular disease that most endangers your soul’s 
health; and so I beg you to try and examine 
yourself by the rule of God’s Holy Word, and 
that not lightly, but soberly, and in the fear 
of God. 

Let us not try to deceive ourselves, crying, 
peace, peace, where there is no peace of God, 
but test our manner of life by Holy Scripture, 
and above all by the teaching and example of 
Jesus Christ our Lord. And then seeing just 
73 


u 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


what our besetting sin is, let us do as we would 
if we knew that we had a tendency to some 
physical ailment that might be a menace to us, 
such as a predisposition to consumption, heart 
trouble, or other disease. If wise, we would 
carefully avoid everything that would be 
likely to develop it. "We would treat promptly 
the first unfavorable symptoms, and try to 
prevent the disease from gaining any foothold 
or headway. If, for example, your besetting 
sin is an inclination to intemperance in strong 
drink, carefully avoid all those occasions 
and associations that would lead to it. Do 
not flatter yourself that you know how 
far you can go, or that you can stop 
indulgence in it when you have a mind to. 
Stop now when you can, lest there come a 
time when you cannot. Above all do not 
trust in your own unaided strength but “ be 
strong in the Lord, and in the power of His 
might.” Then only, can you hope to say as 
did St. Paul, “ I can do all things through 
Christ, who strengtheneth me.” Nor this only, 
do as any wise man would who knows that he 
has a predisposition to some particular malady. 
Not only would he guard against everything 
that tends to its development, but above all he 
would try to strengthen, and build up his gen¬ 
eral health. In so doing he would make him- 


THE BESETTING SIN 75 

self impervious to attacks which might other¬ 
wise endanger his life. So we should try to 
become spiritually strong by constant fidelity, 
and in this way become impervious to the as¬ 
saults of that particular adversary that most 
frequently assails our soul. Consider the case 
of two Christians confirmed in the same class, 
and at the same time admitted to the Lord’s 
table. One grows in grace and in the knowl¬ 
edge of Christ, and is a tower of strength in 
his parish, and in the community, while the 
other who had identically the same privileges 
and opportunities, finally falls away, and at 
last practically excommunicates himself. The 
one, by God’s grace, walks in all the com¬ 
mandments and ordinances of the Lord, blame¬ 
less, and by continued fidelity becomes spir¬ 
itually strong, w’hile the other was careless, 
negligent, and more and more unfaithful. To 
both, as to all men, comes their time of testing, 
and one passes through it unscathed, while the 
other fails and falls, making sad, utter ship¬ 
wreck of faith and hope. We need not look 
far for the difference in them; why one had 
strength to stand, and withstand in time of 
need, and the other so sadly sinned against 
God and his own soul’s life ? It was not 
from lack of privilege, opportunity or grace to 
be had for the seeking, but the one had a will 


76 


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to be saved, and the other sinned against 
light, knowledge, and all the monitions and 
warnings of the indwelling Spirit. 

Let us now, especially through Lent, when 
thousands and thousands of our fellow Chris¬ 
tians are fighting the good fight of faith, with 
them “ lay hold on eternal life.” “ Watch and 
pray,” said our Lord. Let us come to Him in 
all the ways of His appointment, that we may 
be “ strong in the Lord and in the power of 
His might.” He said, “ My grace is sufficient 
for thee, for My strength is made perfect in 
weakness.” He wants to help us and bless us. 
Let us want to be helped and blest. Let us 
draw near to God and we will find that in us 
He has made good the promise, “ Draw nigh 
to God and He will draw nigh to thee.” 

“ I heard the voice of Jesus say 
Come unto Me and rest; 

Lay down, thou weary one, lay down 
Thy head upon My breast. 

I came to Jesus as I was, 

Weary and worn and sad ; 

I found in Him a resting-place, 

And He has made me glad.” 


sms OF OMISSION. 


Inasmuch as ye did it not.— St. Matt. 25: 45. 

The Church instantly reminds us that sins 
of omission are sins, and serious sins, which 
we should confess before God and man; nor 
confess only, but for which we should show 
contrition, by repentance and amendment of 
life. And so we begin our public worship in 
the Lord’s house, not only by acknowledging 
that we have offended against God’s holy 
laws, but that “we have left undone those 
things which we ought to have done.” And 
yet, withal, it is hard to make men think that 
they are as really responsible for sins of 
omission as for those of commission. Most 
men will readily enough admit that they 
are accountable for what they do, and that 
for wrong-doing they may rightly be held 
responsible. To say that a man is irresponsible 
is to intimate either that he has lost his reason, 
or had none to lose. No one will admit that 
to be his case. We admit our responsibility 
and insist that every one else shall admit 
it also. It is an admission that we are free to 
choose, and that we should choose that which 
77 


IS 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


is right in preference to that which is wrong. 
Yes, men are ready enough to admit that they 
are responsible, but not so ready to admit the 
extent of their responsibility. Few seem to 
think themselves accountable for what they 
have left undone. And yet this is what we 
find our blessed Lord asserting over and over 
again. 

He especially warns us against the perverse 
habit of excusing ourselves for the non-per¬ 
formance of our duty towards God. The 
chief purpose of the parable of the talents, 
is to bring vividly before us the certainty of 
judgment, and that not only for what we do, 
but for what we leave undone. The unprofit¬ 
able servant is represented as judged and 
condemned for this very thing. He was 
given that to do which he left undone. It 
was not much. Only one talent was com¬ 
mitted to his care, but he put it to no use. 
He did not throw it away. He simply kept 
it—unused. In the day of account he ap¬ 
peared with his unused talent, saying, “Lo, 
there thou hast that is thine ”: and he was 
condemned simply on the ground of not put¬ 
ting his one talent to any use. It was said 
to him not only, “ Thou wicked and slothful 
servant,” but “ Cast ye the unprofitable servant 
into the outer darkness.” Then our Lord pro- 


SINS OF OMISSION 


79 


ceeds to tell us that it will be sufficient cause 
for condemnation in that day which will not 
only try the sum total of this world’s work, 
but our personal part in it. Elsewhere, over 
and over, judgment is proclaimed against 
open transgressors but the chief purpose of 
the parable is to show men that they will 
come into condemnation for the sins of omis¬ 
sion, for having “ left undone those things 
which we ought to have done.” The rejected 
are represented as commenting on the grounds 
of their rejection, and the Judge as justifying 
His judgment in saying, “ Inasmuch as ye 
did it not.” The parable reminds us of a 
never-to-be-forgotten fact. It is that there 
are two sorts of sins, sins of commission and 
sins of omission, and correspondingly two sorts 
of sinners : Those of the one class positively 
and actively wicked, and those of the other, 
simply negligent of known duty and obliga¬ 
tion. The latter may be, and often are, char¬ 
acterized by much that is good and agreeable. 
Their chief sin would often seem to be the sin 
of omission, but it is none the less a serious 
sin. It was quite enough to cause the con¬ 
demnation of the unprofitable servant. And 
yet by many, these sins of omission hardly 
seem to be regarded as sins at all, and by none 
are they as seriously thought of as they should 


80 


THROUGH THE FORTY HAYS 


be. Many seem to forget altogether that the 
plain injunction is of just as much importance 
as the plain prohibition. “ Thou shalt not 
steal,” is a very explicit command, and yet 
no more a command than the injunction to 
love God and do His holy will; to confess 
Christ before men, and follow Him. And yet 
thousands who would condemn themselves, 
and despise themselves, for breaking one of the 
ten commandments, do not seem to blame 
themselves at all for disobedience to these other 
and equally certain injunctions of God, and of 
their Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. They 
seem to suppose it suffices to keep from open 
evil living; seem to forget that not only are 
we to abhor that which is evil, but to cleave to 
that which is good, and as much bound to do 
that which is enjoined, as to abstain from those 
things which are prohibited. Thus, we have 
certain plain duties towards God and towards 
our neighbor. Our duty towards God is to 
love Him, with all our heart, and with all our 
soul, and with all our strength : and the 
evidence of this is that we go in the way that 
He has appointed for us to walk in. This, 
too, is the test of Christian fidelity. Christ 
said, “ If ye love Me, keep My commandments.” 
Plainly then if we do love Him, we will, God 
helping us, do what He has told us to do: and 


SINS OF OMISSION 


81 


if we do not, it is because we do not love Him. 
This no Christian can deny. And yet there 
are thousands everywhere around us, who, 
though assenting to the truth of Christianity, 
and really wanting it to prevail among men, 
live on month after month, year after year, 
unmindful of the unmistakable injunctions of 
their Lord and Saviour, apparently with no 
concern as to their manner of life, and no 
apparent appreciation of the fact that we are 
accountable not only for what we do but for 
what we leave undone. Would that they 
might see that it is so! The effective work¬ 
ing forces of the Church would be increased 
tenfold if her better sort of adherents could 
be brought to see that we are verily guilty for 
sins of omission as well as for those of com¬ 
mission. They are in the main, worthy men 
and women who want to see God’s Kingdom 
come, and His will be done. They must 
sometimes think of what His Church might 
be, and should be, but, alas, do not seem to 
see what they might be and should be. They 
believe in God. They reverence Christ. They 
honor His Church, and respect His people. 
If not openly for Christ they would be shocked 
to be classed with those that are against Him. 
There is much that they refrain from doing, 
but almost as much which, practically, they 


82 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


refuse to do. They see that even in the things 
of this life, neglect is irreparable, and yet 
somehow seem to suppose that it will not be 
so in that day that will declare the whole 
world’s work and their personal part in it. In 
that day of destiny Christ’s commendation 
will for us be, “Inasmuch as ye did it,” or 
His condemnation will be, “Inasmuch as ye 
did it not.” 

“ Judge and Saviour of our race, 

Grant us, when we see Thy face, 

With Thy ransomed ones a place.” 


A PILLAE IN THE TEMPLE. 


Him that overcometh, will I make a pillar in the temple 
of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write 
upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of 
my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out 
of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new 
name.— Eev. 3 :12. 

The promise is to him “ that overcometh.” 
Overcometh what ? Overcometh what Christ 
overcame, the world, the flesh, and the devil; 
overcometh himself, and the manifold sins of his 
own soul. To him who in the strength of God, 
and the grace of His Spirit, overcometh all these, 
is the promise made: “ Him that overcometh, 
will I make a pillar in the temple of my God.” 
The vision is that of the vast, completed, fin¬ 
ished, spiritual temple, of which Christ is the 
corner-stone, and the promise is of an abiding 
part and place in it, “ Him that overcometh, 
will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, 
and he shall no more go out.” Dwelling on 
this great promise, a prince of preachers, Phil¬ 
lips Brooks, has said, “ When, truly obedient, 
we have been made like Him whom we obey, 
then, only then, we have overcome in the strug¬ 
gle of life. And then we must be pillars in 
83 


84 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


His temple. With wills harmonized with His 
will; with souls that love and hate in truest 
unison of sympathy with His; with no pur¬ 
poses left in us but His purposes,—then we have 
come to what He wants the world to come to. 
We have taken our places in the slowly rising 
temple of His holy will. 

“ To whatever worlds He carries our souls 
when they shall pass out of these imprisoning 
bodies, in those worlds these souls of ours shall 
find themselves part of the same great temple ; 
for it belongs not to this earth alone. There 
can be no end of the universe where God is, to 
which that growing temple does not reach, the 
temple of a creation to be wrought at last into 
a perfect utterance of God by a perfect obe¬ 
dience to God. 

“ O my friends, that is the victory that is 
awaiting you. Slowly, through all the uni¬ 
verse, that temple of God is being built. 
Wherever, in any world, a soul, by free-willed 
obedience, catches the fire of God’s likeness, it 
is set into the growing walls, a living stone. 
When, in your hard fight, in your tiresome 
drudgery, or terrible temptation, you catch the 
purpose of your being, and give yourself to 
God, and so give Him the chance to give Him¬ 
self to you, your life, a living stone, is taken 
up into that growing wall. And the other 


A PILLAR IN THE TEMPLE 


85 


living, burning stones claim and welcome and 
embrace it. They bind it in with themselves. 
They make it sure with their assurance, and 
they gather assurance out of it. The great 
wall of divine likeness through human obedience 
grows and grows, as one tried and purified and 
ripened life after another is laid into it; and 
down at the base, the corner-stone of all, there 
lies the life of Him who, though He was a Son, 
yet learned obedience by the things which He 
suffered, and being made perfect, became the 
author of eternal salvation unto all them that 
obey Him.” 

“ O heavenly Jerusalem, 

Of everlasting halls, 

Thrice blessed are the people 
Thou storest in thy walls. 

“ Thou art the golden mansion, 

Where saints forever sing, 

The seat of God’s own chosen, 

The palace of the king.” 


WHO HE HELPED. 


And Jeans went about all Galilee, teaching in their syna¬ 
gogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and heal¬ 
ing all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease among 
the people. And His fame went throughout all Syria: and 
they brought unto Him all sick people that were taken with 
divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed 
with devils, and those which were lunatics, and those that 
had the palsy: and He healed them.— St. Matt. 4 : 23, 24. 

Jesus 6i went about doing good,” “ and heal¬ 
ing all manner of sickness, and all manner of 
disease among the people,” and yet, then as 
now, “ there was a division among the people 
because of Him.” 

Some believed in Him ; some did not; some 
received Him; some did not; some were 
healed by Him; some were not. 

And why not ? He was as willing to help 
one as another, and yet some were helped, and 
some not. Why not ? Because they did not 
want His help. They did not believe in Him, 
or in what He had to give. Some thought 
Him a dangerous man. Some thought Him a 
bad man. All manner of evil things were said 
of Him; that He was “a gluttonous man, and 
a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sin- 

86 


WHO HE HELPED 


87 


ners ”; that He had a devil, and “ cast out dev¬ 
ils through Beelzebub, the chief of the devils.” 
And yet many believed that He could help 
them, and that He would help them: and so 
they went to Him, “ and He healed them.” 
They needed help. They asked help of Him, 
and they received it. Their plea was their 
need and His power. He recognized their 
plea and healed them. 

Nor is He unwilling to do for us what He 
did for them. That very Lord and Saviour 
Christ is as ready and willing to help now as 
of old in Galilee and the Holy Land, and we 
can still come to Him, and receive of Him; of 
His very self; of His power and His grace; 
the inspiration of His presence; the light of 
His countenance, and the help of His grace, 
just as men did of old, when He was visibly 
here on the earth. In His glorified humanity 
He has ascended into heaven, where, as we say 
in the Creed, He “ sitteth on the right hand of 
God,” as Him to whom “all power is given 
in heaven and earth,” and yet He is with us 
still, as He said, “ Lo, I am with you alway, 
even unto the end of the world.” 

Yes, He is with us still, still doing for men 
substantially what He did of old when He 
“ went about all Galilee, teaching in their syn¬ 
agogues, and preaching the gospel of the King- 


88 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


dom, and healing all manner of sickness, and 
all manner of disease among the people.” 

True, many do not believe it, and so do not 
turn to Him, seeking what He would be so 
glad to give, but, thank God, millions do be¬ 
lieve in Him, in His presence, in His power to 
help, and in His willingness to help: and so 
they turn to Him, asking help, and receiving 
help. Their plea is their need, and His power. 
It is their valid plea. It has never been made 
in vain. And yet many have not faith to 
believe it. It seems too good to be true: 
and so they miss the blessing that might be 
theirs. Somehow, they fail to see that God is 
not against us but for us, and that “ no good 
thing will He withhold from them that live a 
godly life.” He has no good thing that He 
would not gladly give us. Yes, there is noth¬ 
ing good for us that He is not now giving as 
fast as He can. If by the spirit that we are 
of, we shut out from us what He would fain 
give us, then we go unblest, not because He 
would not bless, but because we are unblessable. 

And yet all the while the Lord is waiting to 
help, and it might be said of any one of us, 
as it was of those that received Him of old, 
that “ as many as received Him, to them gave 
He power to become the sons of God, even 
to them that believe on His name.” 


WHO HE HELPED 


89 


Still some one may say, “ Is not this too 
good to be true ? Will He help all who come 
to Him pleading their need, and His power ? 
Is there no exception, no reservation ? ” No: 
none, absolutely none, to such as believing in 
His power, plead their need. 

Did He ever turn away any that came to 
Him ? Not one. He helped them all, Mat¬ 
thew the publican, Simon the leper, Nicode- 
mus, Zaccheus, Bartimeus, the dying male¬ 
factor. There were none so poor, or wretched, 
or outcast, as to be beyond His pity and His 
power. And He is now, to-day, and every 
day, all to us that He was of old to men in 
Galilee, and we can come to Him now just as 
men did then, saying, “ Lord, help me! ” for 
He is now what He was then, “Jesus Christ, 
the same yesterday, to-day and forever,” “able 
to save them to the uttermost that come unto 
God by Him.” 

“ I heard the voice of Jesus say 
Behold I freely give 
The living water; thirsty one, 

Stoop down and drink, and live. 

I came to Jesus, and I drank 
Of that life-giving stream ; 

My thirst was quenched, my soul revived, 

And now I live in Him.” 


IF ANT MAN WILLETH. 


If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, 
whether it be of God.— St. John 7 : 17. 

The Bevised Version more correctly reads, 
“ If any man willeth to do His will, he shall 
know of the teaching, whether it be of God.” 
It was at “ the feast of the Jews, the feast of 
Tabernacles.” Multitudes thronged the holy 
city. The disciples went up to the feast while 
as yet Jesus abode still in Galilee. “The Jews 
sought Him at the feast, and said, Where is 
He ? And there was much murmuring of the 
people concerning Him: for some said, He is 
a good man: others said, Hay, but He de- 
ceiveth the people.” “ About the midst of the 
feast, Jesus went up into the temple and 
taught.” The people wondered at the wisdom 
of His words, and said, “ How knoweth this 
man letters, having never learned ? ” It was a 
mystery to them. They could not understand 
it. He came from Galilee, rude “ Galilee, of 
the nations.” For thirty years He had lived 
in a rude village, so rude that it was said, 
“ Can any good thing come out of Nazareth ? ” 
And yet, “Never man spake like this man.” 

90 


IF ANY MAN WILLETH 


91 


What wonder that “the Jews marveled, say¬ 
ing, How knoweth this man letters, having 
never learned V ” He never sat at the feet of 
their great teachers, and yet no man ever 
spake with such authority and power. It was 
altogether a mystery to them. They said, 
“ How knoweth this man letters, having never 
learned ? ” So Jesus told them how it was. 
There was no mystery about it. He said, 
“ My doctrine is not Mine, but His that sent 
Me.” He corrected their mistaken notion that 
He had never learned. He had learned. As 
child, as boy, as man, He had learned. When 
only twelve years old, sitting in the midst of 
the doctors in the temple, hearing them and 
asking them questions, they were astonished 
at His understanding and answers. Yes: He 
had learned, learned of the Father. He had 
lived to Him, and for Him. For three and 
thirty years He had done God’s will on earth 
as it is done in heaven. He had never, no not 
so much as by one hair’s breadth, deviated 
from the perfect will of God. So He could 
say, “ My doctrine is not Mine, but His that 
sent Me.” 

Then He told those that heard Him, how 
it might be with them as it was with Him; 
said, “ If any man willeth to do His will, he 
shall know of the teaching, whether it be of 


92 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


God.” ¥e have here made clear the secret, 
the sad secret, of so much of failure to know 
and do God’s will. 

It is because so many lives are at cross-pur¬ 
pose with the real reason of their being. It is 
because so many live out their days without 
ever asking, or, apparently, wanting to know 
the purpose of life. But once, and once only, 
there was a man, very man of very man, who 
did know the purpose of life, and never missed 
it, never once throughout His whole way in 
this world. He knew God’s will. He did 
God’s will. He never willed to do other than 
the will of God. So, when His way on earth 
was at an end, He could look into God’s face 
and say, “ Father, I have glorified Thee on the 
earth.” 

Men said He had never learned. That was 
one of their many mistakes concerning Him. 
He had learned. Where ? Everywhere. In 
Mary’s arms, at Mary’s side, in house, in home, 
in shop, in synagogue, on seashore and moun¬ 
tainside, in the lone wilderness, by the grave 
of His dead friend, in the struggle in Geth- 
semane, in the darkness and horror of the 
cruel Cross, “He learned obedience by the 
things which He suffered.” 

Men marveled at Him. He was a mystery 
to them, but never to Himself. He said, “ My 


IF ANY MAN WILLETH 


93 


doctrine is not Mine, but His that sent Me.” 
FTor that only, He said, “ If any man—there 
is no exception, none—if any man willeth to 
do His will, he shall know of the teaching, 
whether it be of God.” 

We, if we are wise, will heed His words. 
If we really are His disciples, we will learn of 
Him. If any willeth as God wills concerning 
him, he is a saved man. Would you be like 
God ? Then will to be like Him, and He will 
help you to be like Him. Would you follow 
Christ, your Lord? Then will to, and set 
about it. 

Do you want, at the last, to be with Him 
where He is ? Then will to be, as He willeth 
concerning you. He said, “In My Father’s 
house are many mansions : if it were not so, I 
would have told you. I go to prepare a place 
for you. And if I go and prepare a place for 
you, I will come again and receive you unto 
Myself; that where I am, there ye may be 
also.” 

“ Little and great is man : 

Great if he will, or if he will 
A pigmy still; 

For what he will he can.” 


“ALL THAT THE FATHER HATH.” 


All things that the Father hath are Mine.— St. John 16 :15. 

Our blessed Lord was an enigma to those 
around Him when He was here among men. 
They wondered at His words and were amazed 
at His works. His power perplexed them. 
They could not and did not deny it, nor could 
they account for it in any satisfactory way. 
They said, “ From whence hath this man these 
things ? and what wisdom is this which is given 
unto Him, that even such mighty works are 
wrought by His hands ? ” “ Some of them said, 
He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the 
chief of the devils.” 

“ Many of them said, He hath a devil, and 
is mad; why hear ye Him ? Others said, 
These are not the words of him that hath a 
devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the 
blind ? ” So it was when He was here among 
men : and, indeed, He has been the wonder of 
the world from that day to this. His power 
not only differs from that of all other men in 
degree but in kind. It is not only a question 

of what He has done for men, but of what He 
94 


“ ALL THAT THE FATHER HATH ” 95 

is still doing. The influence of other men has, 
for the most part, died with them, and, so, is 
an ever-lessening force. But it is not so in His 
case. On the contrary, His is an ever-increas¬ 
ing hold on the hearts and minds of men. We 
rightly honor the names of those who did 
great things for men in their day, but we do 
not live to please them. Who of us does this 
or that to win the approval of a Washington 
or a Lincoln ? But this is just what every 
Christian does daily for Jesus Christ. For His 
sake we refrain from this and that, and for 
His sake daily do this and that. The name of 
many a great man might be wholly obliterated 
with hardly a regret on our part, and without 
having any appreciable effect on us one way 
or the other. But if the name of Jesus 
Christ should be obliterated, the faith and 
hope of the best men and women in the 
world would perish, and for them life would 
lose all that now makes it most worth living. 
This is a fact with respect to Jesus Christ and 
with respect to Him only. 

Wherein lies His unique power ? What is 
the secret of Jesus ? It is in fact, no secret, 
for He never wearied in trying to tell men 
that His power was of God. He said it came 
from His relation to the Father ; said, “ Verily, 
verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing 


96 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do ; 
for what things soever He doeth, these also 
doeth the Son,” and, again, “All things that 
the Father hath are Mine,” “ I and My Father 
are one,” “ I do nothing of Myself,” “ I do al¬ 
ways those things that please Him.” 

We see then that a human life may be so 
identified with the life of God as to share in 
all that God has. 

In Jesus Christ there was a man, very man, 
whose whole life was one with the Father : 
and, so, absolutely all that God had was His. 
All the love, the power, the omnipotence of 
the Father, was His. What wonder then that 
He could say, “ The blind receive their sight, 
and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and 
the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the 
poor have the gospel preached to them ” ? 
What wonder that St. Paul should say, “In 
Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead 
bodily ” ? He said, “ All things that the Father 
hath are Mine.” And should not we also be 
able to say it in some sense? Yes, you, too, 
should be able to say, “ All things that the 
Father hath are mine.” This, doubtless, was 
what the apostle meant in saying to his Cor¬ 
inthian converts, “ All things are yours ; and 
ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.” You 
would account the boy happy who could point 


“ ALL THAT THE FATHER HATH ” 97 

to his father’s broad acres, and say, “ These 
are mine: I am heir to them all.” 

Christian believer, look out on field and 
forest; lift up your eyes unto the hills; yes, 
up to the wide universe; up to heaven, and to 
the God of heaven and earth, and say, “ All 
things that the Father hath are mine.” Every¬ 
thing that would be good for us He wants us 
to have. “ No good thing will He withhold 
from them that live a godly life.” God is giv¬ 
ing us now all that He can, and, no doubt, 
waiting to give us many good things which we 
do not want. Why then should we be weak 
when we might be strong ? Why should we 
go halting on our way when we should be full 
of faith and of a good courage, 

“ Strong in the strength which God supplies 
Through His Eternal Son 11 ? 

Let us try to live in such relation to God as 
will enable Him to bless us, and then bless us 
He surely will. He said to His people of old, 
“ Your sins have withholden good things from 
you.” It is the case of us all. Keep yourself 
in the way of blessing, and blessing will be 
yours. These Lenten days are appointed as 
helps to holiness. If, now, we will prepare 
and make ready the soil of our soul, the good 
seed will find place in us, “and bring forth 


98 


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fruit with patience.” Know that in any case 
God must be something to us, and that what 
He will be to us depends on what we are to 
Him. He is always the same, but what He 
is to us individually must depend upon our 
personal attitude towards Him. He is always 
doing the best He can for us, but we can only 
receive what we really want. It is for us to 
say what that will be. It is not His unwill¬ 
ingness but ours that bars God’s blessings. 
He is always “ more ready to hear than we to 
pray, and wont to give more than either we 
desire or deserve.” 

Blessed Lord, help us to see what we might 
be. 


“ O Lord, seek us, O Lord, find us 
In Thy patient care. 

Be Thy Love before, behind us, 
Round us, everywhere : 

Lest the god of this world blind us, 
Lest he speak us fair, 

Lest he forge a chain to bind us, 
Lest he bait a snare. 

Turn not from us, call to mind us, 
Find, embrace us, bear ; 

Be Thy Love before, behind us, 
Round us, everywhere. ’' 


“TO EYEEY MAN HIS WORK” 


The Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left 
his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every 
man his work ; and commanded the porter to watch. Watch 
ye therefore; for ye know not when the master of the house 
cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or 
in the morning. Lest coming suddenly he find you sleep¬ 
ing.—^. Mark 13 : 34-37. 

As on the day of the great denunciation, 
Jesus was, for the last time, leaving the tem¬ 
ple, “ one of His disciples saith unto Him, Mas¬ 
ter, see what manner of stones, and what 
buildings are here! And Jesus answering, 
said unto him, Seest thou these great build¬ 
ings ? there shall not be left one stone upon 
another that shall not be thrown down.” 

As if stunned by the stern prophecy, the dis¬ 
ciples silently followed their Master over the 
Kidron valley up the slopes of Olivet on their 
way to Bethany. It was not till they rested 
on the mount “ over against the temple,” that 
they ventured to say, “Tell us, when shall 
these things be ? and what shall be the sign 
when all these things shall be fulfilled ? ” In 
answer to these questions our Lord told them 
of the last things that should befall not only 
99 


LOFC. 


100 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


for Jerusalem, for her temple, and the then 
passing dispensation, but for this Christian 
dispensation, and for the world. It was in 
telling His disciples of these last things that 
He said, “ The Son of Man is as a man taking 
a far journey, who left his house, and gave 
authority to his servants, and to every man 
his work.” 

As to the great final coming of the Lord it 
will be our wisdom to simply receive what He, 
Himself, has seen fit to reveal, without raising 
curious questions, or trying to be wise above 
what is written. Whatever else it may be, it 
will, doubtless, be not only the consummation 
of all His lesser comings and judgments, but 
the complete triumph of God’s purpose, and 
the final vindication of His righteous rule. Of 
the manner of that coming of the Lord we can¬ 
not now know much, nor do we need to know. 
It is enough to know that the same Lord who 
will judge us then is judging us now, and that 
He judges us as He finds us. He tells us that 
He has committed His interests into our hands, 
and “ given unto every man his work.” Be¬ 
lieving this it is our part, by God’s help, to 
address ourselves to the doing of our ap¬ 
pointed work in that state of life unto which 
it has pleased God to call us. We are the 
Lord’s servants, every one of us. We may not 


“TO every man his work ” 101 

admit it; we may not know it, but so it is. It 
is not only the case of those who confess it 
before God and man in solemn vow and promise, 
but also of those who do not; for willingly, or 
unwillingly, we must serve the Lord; show 
either the might of His power to help and to 
save, or the poverty of those “ having no hope, 
and without God in the world.” Yes, will¬ 
ingly or unwillingly, we must serve the Lord. 
He placed us here in our appointed place, giv¬ 
ing unto every man his work. Our particular 
work is ours only because we have it as a gift 
of God. This many altogether forget, and, so, 
go ’about their work thinking it theirs, not 
God’s, and so do it poorly or selfishly; make 
it not God’s work to be done as unto the Lord, 
but the world’s work, or, alas, sometimes the 
devil’s. 

So we need to remember this that we so 
often forget, that the Master “ gave authority 
to His servants, and to every man his work.” 
And He is coming again. That is sure. We 
do not know just when ; only that the sum- 
total of the world’s work, and our particu¬ 
lar part in it, will be tried and tested at 
the last, and “Every man’s work shall be 
made manifest; for the day will declare it, be¬ 
cause it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire 
shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is.” 


102 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


Yes, we, every one of us, stand with some 
appointed work for God and man. “He 
gave unto every man his work; ” the work 
he should do for the Master. It is his 
work, a work that no one else can do, a 
work which left undone must remain undone 
forever. And we are doing our work, or not 
doing it; shirking it, or doing it “ heartily, as 
unto the Lord, and not to men,” but however 
that may be, the end is at hand ! The Lord is 
at hand! That coming in power and great 
glory, is as sure as the life of God. We know 
not the day, or the hour that shall come 
sweeping in the silence, but that it is nigh, 
even at the door; that we stand, every hour, 
as by a veiled mystery that any moment may 
flash its awful splendors on the startled vision 
of our soul, making manifest to all men the 
Saviour and the Judge. When standing, in 
the strengh of God in our appointed place, or 
when lapped in sinful self-indulgence wholly 
unmindful of pledged privilege, and solemn 
trust, unlooked for, unexpected, we will stand 
in the presence of the Judge! Or, more 
likely yet, before He comes to all men He will 
come to you and to me personally, saying, 
“Give an account of thy stewardship; thou 
mayest be no longer steward.” 

Yes: we will meet the Master when He 


“to every man his work” 103 

comes, or we will go forth to meet Him on the 
way : but when ? When ? It may be to-mor¬ 
row, or to-day, or to-night! God knoweth ! 
As for us we only know that the hour is at 
hand ; that soon the day, that day, the day of 
the Lord will dawn, and through the vast im¬ 
mensities will loom the Everlasting City of 
our God. 

“ Thou art coming, O my Saviour ! 

Thou art coming, O my King ! 

In Thy beauty all-resplendent, 

In Thy glory all-transcendent; 

Well may we rejoice and sing. 

‘ ‘ Thou art coming, Thou art coming; 

We shall meet Thee on Thy way ; 

We shall see Thee, we shall know Thee, 

We shall bless Thee, we shall show Thee, 

All our hearts could never say.” 


COMFORTING ONE ANOTHER. 


Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who 
comforteth us in all our tribulations, that we may be able 
to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort 
wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.—2 Cor. 
1 : 3, 4. 

In these days of self-examination and 
prayer, when we will, no doubt, charge our¬ 
selves with this and that shortcoming, let 
us not forget to ask ourselves whether we 
are the help and comfort that we might be to 
those around us. 

When once we stop to think of it we see 
that comfort is a great and common need of 
humankind. We have only to think of who 
we poor mortals are to see that it is so. We 
are sinners, every one of us : that is those who 
have missed the mark and come short of the 
design and purpose of Almighty God in our 
creation. We were designed for a certain 
work and a certain end, and we have neither 
done the one or reached the other. As we say 
in the General Confession, “ we have left un¬ 
done those things which we ought to have 
done, and we have done those things which we 
ought not to have done.” We have not all 
104 


COMFORTING ONE ANOTHER 


105 


sinned in just the same way, and yet the fact 
remains that we have all missed the mark; 
that we have all come short of our duty, and 
are far, very far, from what we might have 
been. We have gone stumbling along on our 
way in life, not only failing to come up to the 
mark but committing many actual transgres¬ 
sions. And then, too, we all meet with temp¬ 
tation, trial, pain and loss in one way or an¬ 
other. And so there is absolutely no one of us 
but needs the help and comfort of his brother 
man: and this that we all need we can all 
give, and should gladly give to those around 
us. It is not that many need material bene¬ 
fits, but we all need kindly human relations, 
sympathetic fellow-feeling and neighborliness. 
And yet we constantly excuse ourselves for 
lack of helpfulness to those around us. Too 
often we assume that they have no need of us, 
and often from fancy or prejudice we hold 
ourselves aloof from others, neither trying to 
help them, or letting them help us. Perhaps 
we have taken offense when none was in¬ 
tended, or have imagined a slight when none 
was dreamed of, forgetful of that charity that 
thinketh no evil and is not easily provoked. 
But is mere whim, or fancy, or prejudice, or 
even lack of congeniality, a sufficient cause 
for withholding any kindly service that we 


106 THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 

might render ? What would become of us if 
God should treat us as we often treat our fel¬ 
low men ? Can we think of Him as saying, 
“ You have sinned against Me; you have 
wronged Me, and so I will have nothing more 
to do with you ” ? Alas for us should God 
do to us as so often we have done to our fel¬ 
low men! 

We say to God in prayer, “ Thy Kingdom 
come,” and then wonder why it seems so slow 
in coming, forgetful how Christ said, “ The 
Kingdom of God is within you.” We think 
of Christ’s Kingdom as coming in some ex¬ 
ternal, spectacular way, whereas He said it 
“ cometh not with observation,” “ the Kingdom 
of God is within you.” If we would all see 
what that means we would begin to see that 
the Kingdom will come in us, and around us, 
as fast as we want it to come, and will do 
what we can to have it come. In fact the 
millennium would begin to-day if all Christians 
would begin doing God’s will on earth as it 
is done in heaven. If only we would leave off 
all evil thinking and speaking; if we would 
be merciful as God is merciful, and forgiving 
and kind, pitiful and tender hearted as God is, 
“ not rendering evil for evil, but contrariwise 
blessing ”; if we would let that mind be in 
us which was in Christ, His millennial reign 


COMFORTING ONE ANOTHER 


107 


would begin straightway ; would begin to-day. 
And what doth hinder ? Surely, nothing on 
God’s part. No good thing will He with¬ 
hold. Nothing hinders but our lack of that 
mind which was in Christ. He said, “ All 
things that the Father hath are Mine,” and 
we would be able to say it also if we were 
wholly as He was. 

As we go along on life’s journey let us make 
it a way of life by following Him who said, 
“ I am the way; ” “ follow Me.” Then will we 
“ go about doing good ” as He did : then will 
we be ever ready to “ lend a hand ” to those 
journeying with us. “ As we have therefore 
opportunity, let us do good unto all men, 
especially unto them who are of the household 
of faith.” 

“ Comfort one another 
For the way is often dreary, 

And the feet are often weary, 

And the heart is often sad. 

There is heavy burden-bearing, 

. When it seems that none are caring, 

And we half forget that ever we were glad. 

“ Comfort one another 
With the hand-clasp close and tender, 

With'the sweetness love can render, 

And the looks of friendly eyes. 

Do not wait with grace unspoken, 

While life’s daily bread is broken— 

Gentle speech is oft like manna from the skies,” 


GOING UP INTO THE TEMPLE 
TO PRAY. 


Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a 
Pharisee, and the other a publican.— St. Luke 18: 10. 

As, in these forty days, we go up into the 
temple to pray, we will do well to remember 
that the blessing that we bring down from 
the temple will in no small measure depend 
on the spirit in which we go up into the 
temple. This is made plain in the parable 
in which our blessed Lord tells us how “ two 
men went up into the temple to pray : the one 
a Pharisee, and the other a publican.” They 
were representative men of their day : the one 
of the very respectable and the other of a dis¬ 
reputable class. The Pharisee began well, 
but he did not go on well. He began with 
thanksgiving, said, “ Lord, I thank Thee ”: but 
for what ? For himself, the Pharisee, and 
that he was such a very proper person ; so 
much better than other men : “ God, I thank 
Thee, that I am not as other men are, extor¬ 
tioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this 
108 


GOING UP INTO THE TEMPLE TO PRAY 109 

publican.” The publican, he thought, had 
good need to stand “ afar off ” and beat his 
breast, but not he. He was all that he should 
be. Nay, better than he need be. Not only 
did he do all that the law required, but much 
more, and he meant that God should know 
what a good man he was. He said, “ I fast 
twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I 
possess.” Not so the publican. “ Standing afar 
off, he would not lift up so much as his eyes 
towards heaven, but smote upon his breast, say¬ 
ing, God be merciful to me a sinner.” And 
the infallible Christ said, “ I tell you this man 
went down to his house justified rather than 
the other; for every one that exalteth himself 
shall be abased; and he that humbleth him¬ 
self shall be exalted.” The Pharisee was 
wholly deceived in regard to himself. He 
had altogether too good an opinion of him¬ 
self. He seemed to suppose that God would 
take him on his own estimate of himself, 
whereas he was altogether lacking in that 
humble and penitent spirit which alone is 
of great worth in the sight of God. The 
Pharisee judged only in respect of the grosser 
sort of sins, and as he was free from these, he 
thought that all was well with him, and blest 
himself, and gave thanks for being such a very 
proper person. 


110 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


Now every Christian will shrink from the 
Pharisaic spirit, and reputation, but we may 
be sure that if we are going on in life in 
habitual self-satisfaction; with no regrets for 
our shortcomings; with no sorrow for our 
sins; without contrition and amendment of 
life; with no self-accusation for duties left 
undone; if the days come and go without 
thought of what we might be, and should be; 
with no pleading before God for forgiveness 
and grace, then though we may not repeat the 
very insolence of the Pharisee, still we are 
with him in spirit, and so shall go down from 
the Lord’s house to our own to-day no more 
justified or blest than was that Pharisee of old 
time. Let us remember that gross, open sins, 
are not the only sins there are in the world. 
They are bad enough and unless repented of 
and put away, they will kill the soul; but 
sins of the spirit can do this just as well. In 
a sense they are more dangerous in that 
not being so open to human sight they can be 
cherished and indulged sometimes without 
even being suspected of men. The sins of the 
drunkard and the liar “ are open beforehand, 
going before to judgment.” They declare 
beforehand the final judgment, whereas the 
sins of the mischief-maker, the tattler and 
the slanderer, are not so manifest to men, 


GOING UP INTO THE TEMPLE TO PRAY 111 

although, perhaps, just as abhorrent in the 
sight of God. 

Let us then remember that there are a great 
many sins besides those that lie on the surface, 
and, too, that the more marked sins may, and 
often are avoided, when those subtler mischiefs 
of the spirit are indulged in without let or 
hindrance. 

Yes, this very freedom from open sins may 
minister to these subtle sins of the spirit. 
There is, we should remember, a white devil 
of spiritual pride as well as a black devil of 
fleshly lusts. Satan, it is said, can transform 
himself into an angel of light when it serves 
his purpose, and we may be sure it will be all 
the same to him whether we go down to hell 
as open evil livers, or as proud, self-righteous 
Pharisees. Yes, he may be all the more 
pleased to have it so, for these we are told are 
twofold more the children of hell than the other. 

So, in our Lenten questioning, let us ask 
ourselves above all about these sins of the 
spirit; ask whether we are trying to cast out 
pride and self-conceit; whether we think of 
ourselves “more highly than we ought to 
think,” or soberly as becometh disciples of 
Him who said, “ Learn of Me, for I am meek 
and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto 
your souls.” 


112 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


“ Now are the days of humblest prayer, 
When consciences to God lie bare, 
And mercy most delights to spare. 

“Oh, harken when we cry, 

Chastise us with Thy fear; 

Yet Father ! in the multitude 
Of Thy compassions, hear.” 


PLEASING OTHEKS. 


We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the 
weak, and not please ourselves. Let every one of us please 
his neighbor for his good to edification, for even Christ 
pleased not Himself .—Romans 15 : 1, 2, 3. 

Certain captious critics of Christianity 
allege that it has so much to do with the life 
of the world to come that it lessens our inter¬ 
est in the life that now is and detracts from 
our present work and duty here on the earth. 
In other words the charge is that it chiefly 
concerns itself about a future life; that it is 
otherworldly. The late Professor Clifford 
made this his special indictment against 
Christianity, and in so doing claimed that the 
whole duty of man is confined to this present 
life, and that it can best be done without any 
regard to any other life than this. Now the 
answer to this charge is that it is not true. 
It is bearing false witness. Christianity does 
not chiefly concern itself about a far-away 
world, but about Christian believing and liv¬ 
ing now and here in this world. Chiefly it 
has to do with our present duty to God, 
to ourselves and to our fellow men. Nor is it 
113 


114 THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 

true either that it would be better to confine 
our thoughts wholly to our worldly affairs 
without any reference to God and our future 
well-being. It would not be better: no, nor 
half as good. It would not be good at all. 

We all know that it is not an easy thing 
to live as we should, or to help others to so 
live. At the best it is a hard thing to order 
our lives aright. In trying to do so we need, 
and constantly need, all the helps and induce¬ 
ments that are of any assistance to us. And 
with them all, we will still sadly come short 
of our whole duty to God, ourselves, and to 
those around us. No: we cannot afford to 
dispense with any aid or inducement to right 
living. To destroy, or even lessen any help to 
good conduct, would be to lessen the safety of 
society, and the value of human life. Nor 
can there be any doubt but that the fear of 
God is a restraint, and a great restraint upon 
many people, as it ought to be. To destroy 
or lessen that restraint would be an irrepa¬ 
rable loss. Nor can there be any doubt that 
it would be a sad, an unspeakable loss, to^rob 
humankind of the comforts and consolations 
of Christianity. 

No: it would not be better, or anything 
like as well for men to devote all their 
thought and energy to the things of this life 


PLEASING OTHERS 


115 


without reference to any other. To do that 
would narrow and cheapen life. It would 
cabin it within the brief limits of our days on 
earth. It would paralyze every limitless hope 
or endeavor. It might as well be said that it 
would be better to bring up a boy with no thought 
of his being anything but a boy. From the 
first, and all along, his training has reference 
to his future. Nor should it be planned only 
with reference to time but to eternity as well. 

It is not true, however, that Christianity is 
so otherworldly that it lessens the importance 
of our present work in the world. Holy 
Scripture is full of good advice and wise 
precepts, as to right living now and here; 
precepts which if generally practised would 
make human life a thousand times nobler, bet¬ 
ter, sweeter, than it is. Thus, St. Paul says, 
“We that are strong ought to bear the 
infirmities of the weak, and not to please 
ourselves: let every one of us please his 
neighbor for his good to edification: for even 
Christ pleased not Himself.” Think how much 
better a place to live in this world would be if 
we would heed this admonition. To think of 
others; to please others; to u please our 
neighbor for his good to edification,” how 
many of us make this a ruling principle with 
us ? And yet we know that it ought to be, 


116 THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 

and that there is not a community in all 
Christendom that would not be far happier 
and better for following this and the number¬ 
less like teachings of Holy Scripture. Only 
think what a blessing it would bring if we 
would all try to “ please our neighbor, for his 
good to edification.” It means his up-building, 
his completion. Just as a house is built up, 
stone upon stone, until it stands strong, 
finished, complete, that is what the word 
“ edification ” implies. 

So for us to “ please our neighbor to his 
good, for edification,” is to help to his comple¬ 
tion in Christ Jesus. True, that will not fully 
be “ Till we all come in the unity of the faith, 
and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto 
a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature 
of the fulness of Christ,” but we, every one of 
us, can contribute to that great consummation 
of Christ’s redeeming work. 

“ My God. wilt Thou accept, and will not we 
Give aught to Thee ? 

The kept we lose, the offered we retain 
Or find again. 

“ Yet if our gift were lost, we well might lose 
All for Thy use : 

Well lost for Thee, whose love is all for us 
Gratuitous.” 


LEANNESS OF SOUL. 


And He saved them from the adversary’s hand : and de¬ 
livered them from the hand of the enemy. As for those 
that troubled them, the waters overwhelmed them : there 
was not one of them left. Then believed they His words : 
and sang praise unto Him. But within a while they forgat 
His works ; and would not abide His counsel. But lust 
came upon them in the wilderness : and they tempted God 
in the desert. And He gave them their desire: and sent 
leanness withal into their soul .—Psalm 106:10-15. 


This was said of the chosen people of old 
time, but of how many of this present genera¬ 
tion, as of that, may it be said : “ He gave 
them their desire, and sent leanness withal 
into their soul.” It is the natural result of 
unsanctified desires. “ Whatsoever a man 
soweth that shall he also reap ”: that, not 
something else. God does not force us into 
conformity to His holy will. He gives light, 
knowledge, grace, blessing. He seeks and 
constrains with all the Divine compassion and 
loving kindness, but then we may be proof 
against it all; may, if we will, walk in our 
own devious ways, and so come to live as if 
“without God and without Christ in the 
world.” 


117 


118 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAY3 


Nor do we need to live bad lives in order to 
this. Not at all: we have simply to live 
without consciousness of God or of His will 
and desire concerning us. We may choose any 
object in life we will. It may be simply to be 
rich, or to gain position, place or power, or 
only to “ enjoy life ” as the saying is. The 
world is wide and full of many things,—things 
“ pleasant to the eye,” and often, apparently, 
“ to be desired to make one wise.” There are 
any number of things to choose from : and 
possibly you may get what you want. You 
are not likely to: still you may, and yet, in 
the end, find what an empty and unsatisfying 
thing it is after all: or, even a worse lot may 
be yours, and that is to have your soul grow 
so thin and small as to be perfectly satisfied 
with perishable things. In such case especially 
is the saying verified—“ He gave them their 
desire, and sent leanness withal into their 
soul.” In fact it will be our case unless we 
are workers together with God, loving that 
which He loves and desiring that which He 
desires concerning us. It may not always 
seem so. The things of the world may satisfy 
for awhile, but not always: no, nor for long. 
The time will come when you will say, “I 
have no pleasure in them,” and you will begin 
to see that “ the world passeth away and the 


LEANNESS OF SOUL 


119 


lust thereof ” ; that only “ he that doeth the 
will of God abideth forever. And then, you 
will come to feel that one look of the living 
God would outweigh the world and all that it 
has to give. 

“ Can man rejoice who lives in hourly fear? 

Can man make haste who toils beneath a load? 

Can man feel rest who has no fixed abode? 

All he lays hold of or can see or hear 
Is passing by, is prompt to disappear, 

Is doomed, foredoomed, continued in no stay : 

This day he breathes in is his latter day, 

This year of time is this world’s latter year. 

“ Thus in himself is he most miserable :— 

Out of himself, Lord, lift him up to Thee, 

Out of himself, and all these worlds that flee; 

Hold h;m in patience underneath the rod, 

Anchor his hope beyond life’s ebb and swell, 

Perfect his patience in the love of God.” 


LOOKING AND SEEING. 

And he sought to see Jesus who He was.— St. Luke 19: 3. 

Zaccheus may have been moved by mere 
curiosity in seeking to see Jesus, who He was, 
and yet there must have been something 
better in the despised little publican than men 
supposed or he himself suspected; for, looking 
at Jesus, he saw so much more in Him than 
most men did. And what he saw brought 
him greater blessing. For him, sight led to in¬ 
sight, and he began to see Jesus, who He was. 
Hot only did Zaccheus look at Him, but He 
saw Him; probably not exactly as St. John 
saw Him, still, looking at Jesus, he saw some¬ 
thing in Him that he had never seen in any one 
else, and that sight touched his inmost soul. 
It was to him a beatific vision. And so Zac¬ 
cheus could never be again what he had been. 
He saw Jesus, and that sight won his soul. He 
received Him joyfully. Yes, there must have 
been an unsuspected soul of goodness in him, 
for, looking at Jesus, he saw in Him what the 
many had failed to see. He did not simply 
look at Him as did the staring multitude, but 
in some real way he saw Him, who He was, 
and that sight wholly won his soul. The old 
120 


LOOKING AND SEEING 


121 


Zaccheus, the bad Zaccheus, withered away. 
The old Zaccheus died. A new Zaccheus was 
born in him. Seeing Jesus saved him, and at 
once he “ stood, and said unto the Lord: Be¬ 
hold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to 
the poor: and if I have taken anything from 
any man by false accusation, I restore him 
fourfold.” The multitude looked at Jesus. 
Zaccheus saw Him. Those that only looked 
at Jesus, saw no beauty in Him that they 
should desire Him. 

Indeed, merely looking at Jesus made the 
many not the better, but the worse. It led 
some to say, “ He hath a devil and is mad: 
why hear ye Him ? ” “ Some of them said, He 

casteth out devils through Beelzebub, the chief 
of the devils.” Some looked at Him and 
“ did spit in His face, and buffeted Him, and 
others smote Him with the palms of their 
hands.” Still, some there were who not only 
looked at Him, but saw Him. It led Peter to 
say, “ Depart from me ; for I am a sinful man, 
O Lord.” It led Thomas to say, “My Lord 
and my God ! ” It led St. Paul to say, “ I am 
crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live: yet 
not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life 
which I now live in the flesh, I live by the 
faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and 
gave Himself for me.” 


122 


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Brethren, a well-spent Lent will help us to 
see Jesus, who He is. These forty days will 
in fact be useless, and worse than useless to us, 
unless they help us to see Jesus, who He is. 
True, in this world we will never adequately 
see Him, but if we are His, we can and will, 
more and more, see Him. And if this be our 
blessedness, we will, at the last, see Him as He 
is. The promise is, “ Thine eyes shall see the 
King in His beauty : they shall behold a far 
stretching land.” And better yet are the 
Gospel promises. The Lord said, “ My sheep 
hear My voice, and I know them, and they fol¬ 
low Me: and I give unto them eternal life: 
and they shall never perish, neither shall any 
pluck them out of My hand ” : and His apostle, 
looking eagerly to the great change, said, “ Be¬ 
loved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth 
not yet appear what we shall be: but we know 
that, when He shall appear we shall be like 
Him : for we shall see Him as He is.” 

“Oh, the joy to see Thee reigning, 

Thee, our own beloved Lord ! 

Every tongue Thy name confessing, 

Worship, honor, glory, blessing, 

Brought to Thee with one accord; 

Thee, our Master, and our Friend, 

Vindicated and enthroned ; 

Unto earth’s remotest end 
Glorified, adored, and owned ! ” 


TAKING UP YOUR CROSS. 


Then said Jesus unto His disciples, If any man will 
come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, 
and follow Me.— St. Matt. 16: 24. 

Jesus knew whereof He spake. He had 
borne crosses of many kinds, and at that very 
time was on His way to “ the hill called Cal¬ 
vary,” to bear the Cross of all crosses. From 
the first He had walked in its long shadow, 
and when He came close up to it, He told His 
disciples plainly how “He must suffer many 
things, and be crucified and killed.” Peter 
said, “ Be it far from Thee, Lord; this shall 
not be unto Thee.” But Jesus rebuking him 
said “ unto His disciples, If any man will 
come after Me, let him deny himself, and 
take up his cross, and follow Me. For who¬ 
soever will save his life, shall lose it: and 
whosoever will lose his life for My sake, 
shall find it. For what is a man profited, if 
he shall gain the whole world, and lose his 
own soul ? ” 

This that He said to His disciples then, He 
is saying still, to you, to me, to all men, “ If 
any man will come after Me, let him deny 
123 


124 THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 

himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” 
But the many do not seem to see what He 
means by it. “ A cross (a man says to him¬ 
self) is not a pleasant thing to bear. It is 
hard and heavy. I do not want it, and will 
not have it if I can help it.” Well, that is 
the feeling of the natural man, but his mistake 
is in thinking he can escape it. He cannot. 
It is there. It lies in our way in life. You 
may not have come to it yet, at least not to 
any very heavy cross, but some day you will. 
It lies in your way in life, and you are on the 
way towards it. You will come to it, and 
then you will take it up, or it will be laid on 
you. You will bear it. You will be obliged 
to bear it. It is a part of the discipline of life. 
You were born to it. As to your cross you 
have no choice. It has come to you, or will 
come to you, as it does to all men. It is there. 
You cannot escape it. You must see then 
that it is not a question as to whether you 
will bear your cross, but how you will bear it. 
It is your cross; in some sense unlike that of 
any one else, or, if not in itself then in the 
circumstances in which it comes and under 
which you will be obliged to bear it. You 
see it is not a question as to whether you will 
bear your cross. That comes from the fact 
of being born into a world of sin and suffer- 


TAKING UP YOUR CROSS 


125 


ing; of testing, of discipline, and of possible, 
and even of triumphant endurance. Nor is 
God the mere observer of how we bear our 
cross, but the merciful, ever-loving Father, 
wanting and waiting to be the helper of us 
all. He has made our cause His. “ God so 
loved the world, that He gave His only be¬ 
gotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, 
should not perish, but have everlasting life.” 
Not only did He come to make God known to 
us in terms within our apprehension, but to be 
one of us, very man ; to live our life; to meet 
its temptations and trials, and show us how 
to meet them, and make them minister to our 
good. Yes, He says, “I know your life; I 
lived it; I know the secret of how it can be 
lived ; I went through it up to the right hand 
of God the Father; I came to help and save 
you ; follow Me ” ; “ If any man will come after 
Me let him deny himself, and take up his 
cross, and follow Me.” He says this to us. 
He has a right to say it. He earned the right 
“ by the things which He suffered. He knows 
what the cross stands for. He bore it for us 
all. He made it the royal road to that throne 
on high where He reigns as Him, unto whom 
all power is given in heaven and earth. And 
so He has the right to say, ‘ I am the way,’ 
i Follow Me/ 6 If any man will come after Me, 


126 


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let him deny himself, and take up his cross, 
and follow Me.’ ” It is as if He said, “ Stand 
where I stood ; keep close to Me; abide in 
Me and I will abide in you ; My strength will 
be your strength; deny yourself, your lower 
self; take up your cross and follow Me ; bear 
the Cross and it will bear you, bear you safely 
to Me, where I am.” It is His wish for you. 
He said, “ Father, I will that they whom 
Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am.” 

The observance of the time will bring bless¬ 
ing to us only as it brings us more to that 
mind which was in Him. 

“ All glory to redeeming grace, 

Disdaining not our evil case, 

But showing us our Saviour’s faoe ! ” 


“BE OF GOOD CHEER.” 

Be of good cheer : I have overcome the world.— St. John 
16: 33. 

Lent is a sober season, and yet those that 
rightly observe it find it rich in revelations 
of the loving kindnesses of the Lord. And so 
it has its own joys. As of old, “ The secret of 
the Lord is among them that fear Him.” If 
to be more “ in the Spirit,” we have abstained 
from earthly joys, we will come to see a new 
meaning in the Evangelist’s statement as, in 
telling us how our Lord overcame the temp¬ 
tations of the adversary, he says, “ Then the 
devil leaveth Him, and behold angels came 
and ministered unto Him.” Angels of com¬ 
fort are always coming to us if we will wel¬ 
come them. The Lord said to His disciples, 
“ I will not leave you comfortless (desolate, or 
orphaned as the reading might be): I will 
come to you,” and of the promised Comforter, 
“ He shall teach you all things, and bring all 
things to your remembrance, whatsoever I 
have said unto you.” In taking of the things 
of Christ and showing them unto us, He re¬ 
minds us how the Lord said, “ The words that 
127 


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THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


I speak unto you, they are spirit, they are 
life.” Let us then have them much in mind 
these Lenten days, and we will find them to 
our great and endless comfort. They recall 
that which we have often heard, but of which 
often forgetting, we have need to be often re¬ 
minded. They tell us who God is, and who 
we are, and what we should be, and might be if 
only we would. We will do well then to remind 
ourselves every day, how great are our blessings 
in Christ; to remember how He tells us that 
God is our Father ; that we are His children; 
that “God so loved the world, that He gave His 
only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth 
in Him should not perish but have everlasting 
life.” What wonder then that St. Paul should 
say, “ If God be for us, who can be against 
us?” He is for us. We need to know it to 
our comfort. “ Ho good thing will He with¬ 
hold from them that live a godly life.” There 
is nothing that God has that would be good 
for us, that He is not willing and waiting to 
give. He is, now, giving us every good thing 
that we can receive to our everlasting good. 
He is giving more than either we desire or 
deserve. “ He giveth His beloved in sleep,” 
that is even whilst they sleep. That selfsame 
Spirit of God who first “ breathed into man 
the breath of life, and made him a living 


“BE OF GOOD CHEER” 129 

soul,” will still make every breath we breathe 
a breath of life, if we will it should be so. Yes: 
God wants us to be well and happy ; wants us 
to be good, and “ go about doing good,” as did 
Jesus Christ, His Son our Lord. He wants us 
“ be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His 
might.” We might be, and would be, if only we 
would “take unto us the whole armor of God.” 
We are not orphans or waifs thrust out into 
the wide world. Our Lord said, “ I will not 
leave you orphans.” We have a Father, and a 
Father’s house full of all good things. We 
need to know it. To some it seems too good 
to be true, and so they go mournfully when 
they should be strong and of a good courage. 
If only we really want those good things that 
God hath prepared for them that love Him, 
they are ours. “ All things are yours,” says 
St. Paul. Know then that it is so. Why 
should we have hard thoughts of God ? He 
is not the great taskmaster up in a far-off 
heaven, careless of mankind. That was an 
old pagan notion that still seems to be the 
thought of many. It is one of the many sur¬ 
vivals of paganism still traceable in Christen¬ 
dom. Nor is God Fate or Doom, as so many 
still seem to suppose. No, nor infinite energy 
only. “ God is love, and he that dwelleth in 
love, dwelleth in God, and God in him.” That 


130 THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 

is the true Christian teaching that Jesus 
Christ came to reveal to men, and yet to 
most men it seems something too good to be 
true. They still cling to the old Hebraic 
notion of a far away Deity who rarely leaves 
His distant heaven, and when He does it 
is on a “ visitation ” amongst men to punish 
them well. So they fear God, but they never 
think of loving Him or serving Him. In fact 
they dread the thought of God and account 
themselves fortunate in being left alone on the 
earth. They would turn pale at the thought 
of God visiting them. They are willing to 
think of Him as the God of Abraham, and 
Isaac and Jacob, but would be sorry to think 
of Him as “ about their path, and about their 
bed,” knowing all they think and say and do. 
Yes, the average man is more Hebrew or 
Mohammedan than Christian. The God with 
whom he thinks he has to do, is one of only rare 
and solemn occasions, such as a death in the 
family, or some other sad “visitation.” He 
fears God. He dreads “visitations.” He wants 
God far from him. He may not put it that 
way, but practically that seems to be the theol¬ 
ogy of the average man. In other words, in 
his thought of God he is more a Hebrew 
or a Mohammedan than a Christian. His 
thought of God is an uncomfortable thought, 


“be of good cheer” 131 

which he does not entertain when he can 
help it. 

Now Jesus Christ our Lord tells us that 
God is our Father; that He is the God and 
Father of us all; that we are His children, 
and so brother men, every one of us; and, too, 
that our destiny depends upon our treatment 
of our fellow men. In putting His protecting 
hand over us He puts it over every other 
human being, and especially over little 
children, and over the weak, the poor, the 
helpless and the hungry, saying, “ Inasmuch 
as ye have done it unto the least of these, My 
brethren, ye have done it unto Me.” The 
Christian teaching is that God is the imma¬ 
nent, omniscient Deity “in whom we live, 
and move, and have our being ”; the God 
and Father of us all; that He was most fully 
made manifest to men in Jesus Christ, His 
Son our Lord, the eternal Word, who was with 
God and was God, “ who was made flesh, and 
dwelt among us ”; was crucified, dead and 
buried; who rose again and ascended into 
heaven, where He now reigns as Him, unto 
whom all power is given in heaven and earth. 

In His teaching He said, “ The Kingdom of 
God is within you,” and His apostle tells of 
Him as “ Christ in you, the hope of glory.” 
If then our highest hope is “that He may 


132 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


dwell in us and we in Him,” let us “ be strong 
in the Lord and in the power of His might,” 
remembering how He said, “ Be of good cheer: 
I have evercome the world.” 

“ What can I do but trust Thee, Lord ! 

For Thou art God alone ? 

My soul is safer in Thy hands, 

Father, than in my own.” 


OUR DESTINY. 


Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, 
Come ye blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom pre¬ 
pared for you from the beginning of the world : for I was 
an hungered, and ye gave Me meat: I was thirsty, and ye 
gave Me drink : I was a stranger, and ye took Me in; naked 
and ye clothed Me; I was sick, and ye visited Me ; I was in 
prison, and ye came unto Me.— St. Matt. 25 : 34, 35, 36. 

In these still days of self-examination and 
prayer let us not fail to think how it will be 
with us at the last, when we shall hear the 
sober footfalls of the Angel of Death drawing 
nearer and nearer, and 

“ The solemn death-bell tolls 
For our own departing souls ? ” 

How will it be with us as we look up into 
the vast immensities, and know, know for a 
certainty, what awaits us—in Eternity ? 
Are there any tests that will tell us, now and 
here, how it will be with us then and there ? 
Yes, there are many to be found among the 
words of our blessed Lord, and to these we 
should give good heed. He says, “ If any 
man will come after Me, let him deny himself, 
and take up his cross, and follow Me ” ; “ Ye 
133 


134 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I com¬ 
mand you ” ; “ My sheep hear My voice, and 
I know them, and they follow Me : and I give 
unto them eternal life; and they shall never 
perish, neither shall any pluck them out of My 
hand.” These, and the many like words of 
our Saviour Christ, are those by which we 
should try and examine ourselves now and 
here, if we would know how it will be with us 
“ when our last hour cometh.” Let us heed 
His tests. They tell us what will determine 
our destiny. Many have invented tests of 
their own, instead of heeding those that the 
Lord Himself has given. They have supposed 
that orthodoxy is the essential thing; that our 
eternal destiny will depend upon the correct¬ 
ness of our theological opinions. On this 
theory the whole machinery of Church and 
state has often been employed for the extir¬ 
pation of real, or supposed, erroneous opinions. 
Thinking that destiny will depend on doc¬ 
trine, men have thought they were doing God 
service, in inflicting untold sufferings upon 
their fellow men for not being of their way of 
thinking. Turning from the tests that mere 
men have made, let us give good heed to those 
that rest on the sure words of the one only in¬ 
fallible Teacher. How it is a most significant 
thing that He tells us, that with Him final ac- 


OUR DESTINY 


135 


ceptance or final rejection will depend upon 
our treatment of our fellow men. 

Good opinions are good. An orthodox 
theology is good. Good observances are 
good. We should walk in all the command¬ 
ments and ordinances of the Lord blameless, 
and yet none of these things will necessarily 
win for us the Lord’s welcome, and the Lord’s 
approval. No one of these things will 
necessarily decide our destiny. God looks on 
the heart. Christian living is the only certain 
sign of Christian believing. Deeds, not 
words, will tell the story. “ Not every one,” 
said the Saviour, “ that saith unto Me, Lord, 
Lord, shall enter the Kingdom of heaven, but 
he that doeth the will of My Father which is 
in heaven.” And His apostle says, “ Every 
man’s work shall be made manifest; for the 
day shall declare it, because it shall be re¬ 
vealed by fire; and the fire shall try every 
man’s work, of what sort it is.” 

In short the teaching of the New Testament 
is summed in this teaching of our Lord, which, 
in effect, is that our destiny will depend upon 
our treatment of our fellow men. Every man 
living is enclosed in His protecting arms. In 
effect He says, “ In touching your brother- 
men, you touch Me; help them, and you help 
Me; serve them, and you serve Me; hurt 


136 


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them, and you hurt Me; do good to them, and 
you do good to Me. No service that you can 
render will be without its reward.” “ Whoso¬ 
ever shall give to drink unto one of these little 
ones, a cup of cold water only, in the name of 
a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no 
wise lose his reward.” 

Especially around little children are the 
protecting arms of the Good Shepherd. He 
says, “ Whoso shall offend (cause to stumble) 
one of these little ones which believe in Me, it 
were better for him that a millstone were 
hanged about his neck, and that he were 
drowned in the depth of the sea.” 

Yes, in the final judgment we will find that 
our destiny will depend upon our treatment of 
our fellow men. If then you have hurt 
another, be sorry for it; repent; show works 
meet for repentance by making whatever 
reparation you can. If it be a hurt that can¬ 
not be made good, as alas, often is the case, at 
least repent; repent and pray that your sin 
may be forgiven you for Jesus Christ’s sake. 
But wherever reparation is possible make it. 
It will be a sign of sincerity. Without it 
there has been no repentance. If then 
reparation be possible, thank God, and make 
it without delay, for otherwise your sin will 
stand against you. “ Let this mind be in you 


OUR DESTINY 137 

which was in Christ,” for then will you see 
the blessedness of service. 

Be good: do good, and so put on Christ, 
“ Who went about doing good.” Try to be 
like Him “ remembering always, that baptism 
doth represent unto us our profession; which 
is, to follow the example of our Saviour 
Christ, and to be made like unto Him.” 

That is the will of God concerning you. 
How did you touch your fellow men ? What 
was your example ? Did you help or hinder ? 
That will decide your destiny. You owe it to 
God, to your neighbor and to yourself, to try, 
by God’s help, to do His holy will on earth as 
it is done in heaven. 

At the last, at the last, may you find mercy 
and acceptance with Him who said, “Then 
shall the King say unto them on His right 
hand, Come ye blessed of My Father, inherit 
the kingdom prepared for you from the 
beginning of the world ; for I was an hungered 
and ye gave Me meat; I was thirsty, and ye 
gave Me drink ; I was a stranger, and ye took 
Me in ; naked and ye clothed Me; I was sick, 
and ye visited Me; I was in prison, and ye 
came unto Me.” 

“ O happy time of blessed tears, 

Of surer hopes, of chastening fears, 

Undoing all our evil years. 


138 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


Oh, hearken when we cry, 
Chastise us with Thy fear ; 

Yet, Father ! in the multitude 
Of Thy compassions hear. ” 


THOUGHTS FOE HOLY WEEK. 


Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus : 
who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be 
equal with God : but made Himself of no reputation, and 
took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the 
likeness of men : and being found in fashion as a man, He 
humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even 
the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly ex¬ 
alted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name : 
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things 
in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth ; 
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is 
Lord, to the glory of God the Father.— Phil. 2 :5-11. 

Through Holy Week to Easter-Even, we 
hear over and over the story of the Cross,— 
that “ meritorious Cross and Passion ; whereby 
alone we obtain remission of our sins, and are 
made partakers of the Kingdom of heaven.” 
Fixing our thoughts on the awful Sacrifice 
that was made for us on “the hill called 
Calvary,” we seem to see its bleeding, dying 
Victim looking down on us, saying in the 
words of the ancient prophecy, “ Behold and 
see if there be any sorrow like unto My sorrow 
which is done unto Me.” It is a scene that 
stands alone, unparalleled! It is not simply 
suffering, but vast, strange, mysterious suffer- 

139 


140 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


ing, filling us with an awe-inspiring feeling 
that it has to do not only with this world, but 
with all worlds; not only with time, but with 
eternity; not only with the finite, but with 
the infinite, and with all that lies wrapped up 
in the vast possibilities of the life of the world 
to come. No Christian can contemplate the 
awful Sacrifice of Calvary without feeling 
instinctively that it has to do with sanctities 
and necessities vastly transcending the thoughts 
of men. Whatever we see in it, or think we 
see, we know that it is greater, vaster, than 
we can know or think. We may pray, as did 
St. Paul for his Ephesian converts, that we 
may “ be able to comprehend with all saints, 
what is the breadth and length and depth and 
height, and to know the love of Christ,” but 
we are at once moved to say with him, that it 
“ passeth knowledge.” It was a reverent and 
right feeling that moved Christians of old to 
say: “ By Thine unknown sorrows, good 

Lord, deliver us.” No, we can never know 
them, either their extent or efficacy or power. 
There was no sorrow like unto His sorrow, no 
suffering comparable with that “ meritorious 
Cross and Passion whereby alone we obtain 
remission of our sins and are made partakers 
of the Kingdom of heaven.” 

The degree of suffering depends upon ca- 


THOUGHTS FOR HOLY WEEK 141 

pacity for suffering. You rend a tree, and it 
may be said to suffer. It bleeds and dies, but 
unconsciously and without feeling. The brute 
beast can suffer in its way, but it is in a small 
way as compared with that of a man. If you 
hurt a beast it suffers physical pain, that is all. 
You hurt a man and he, too, suffers, but it is 
not half so much from mere physical pain as 
from a feeling of outrage, indignity, and injus¬ 
tice. The suffering of a degraded savage will 
be one thing, and that of a noble, high-minded 
man another and quite a different thing. The 
higher and nobler the character, the greater 
will be the capacity for pain; it is not half so 
much physical as spiritual. 

But no one of all our erring, sin-stained race 
can suffer as did the sinless Son of Man. His 
capacity for joy as well as sorrow must have 
been infinitely greater than ours. Manifestly, 
to Him there was a joy in life, a joy in God 
and in His world, that no other man ever 
knew. His whole life was lived in perfect 
touch with God; in perfect balance with His 
world, with His whole universe. And so 
nature was to Him what it never was to any 
other man. He was in perfect, sympathetic 
relationship to the natural world, and so had 
such perfect mastery over it that even the 
winds and the sea obeyed Him. Even in His 


142 


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very sorrows there seemed to be a certain holy 
joy, the joy of a perfect human life lived in 
perfect unison with the life of the everlasting 
Father. And so, no doubt there was a certain 
kind of joy even in the pain that made Him a 
Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief. 
Even of the awful, unknown sorrows of the 
cross it is said that “ for the joy that was set 
before Him He endured the cross, despising 
the shame.” So He “ bare our sins in His own 
body on the tree.” Just how He bore them, 
what were the deep necessities in the nature of 
the All Holy, and sad estate of His sinful, suf¬ 
fering children, has through the Christian ages 
been the subject of profoundest thought and 
manifold conjecture. But we must all feel how 
poor and, at best, inadequate have been all the 
efforts men have made to set forth a philos¬ 
ophy of Christ’s atoning death and sacrifice. 
And yet no Christian has any least doubt, but 
that by His meritorious Cross and Passion the 
suffering Saviour met the most deep, undying, 
importunate need of our soul’s life. So, what¬ 
ever their theology or opinions or prejudices 
may be, all Christians in their time of need 
instinctively cry out to the cross-crowned 
Saviour, saying, 

“ Rock of ages, cleft for me, 

Let me hide myself in Thee ; 


THOUGHTS FOR HOLY WEEK 


Let the water and the blood, 

From Thy side, a healing flood, 

Be of sin the double cure, 

Save from wrath, and make me pure. 

“Should my tears forever flow, 

Should my zeal no languor know, 

All for sin could not atone, 

Thou must save, and Thou alone; 

In my hand no price I bring, 

Simply to Thy cross I cling.” 


HUMILITY. 


Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me: for I am meek 
and lowly of heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls.— 
St. Matt. 11 : 29. 

In old time humility was little thought of 
among men, but when “Jesus Christ came to 
visit us in great humility,” He took this de¬ 
spised word and made it stand for an essential 
characteristic of a godly and a Christian life. 

It is an example of how radically He revo¬ 
lutionized the thoughts of men, bringing in 
new values, new estimates, new virtues, new 
ways of believing and living. 

Just as coming to the cross and suffering on 
it, He changed it from a sign of shame into the 
symbol of salvation, so He took certain words, 
such as humility and love, and gave them a 
dignity and value that had never been dreamed 
of aforetime. 

“ But (it may be asked) why is humility in 
itself a virtue, and why should it be regarded 
as an essential characteristic of a Christian 
life ? ” Well, chiefly, because Jesus Christ our 
Lord has done for His every true follower two 
things of supreme importance in giving him a 

144 


HUMILITY 


145 


knowledge of God and of himself. He sees 
God in Jesus Christ His Son, our Lord : “ God 
manifest in the flesh,” made known, near, ac¬ 
cessible to him. Looking to Jesus Christ; see¬ 
ing His condescension, His goodness, His long- 
suffering, pitying love, the Christian compares 
himself with his Master, and straightway is led 
to say, “I am a sinful man, O Lord. What 
am I in comparison with Thee ? There is no 
goodness ,or greatness in me : or, if there be 
any goodness in me, it is of Thee. It is Thy 
gift, and of Thy grace. It is not mine, but 
Thine: I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Nor 
this only: while Jesus Christ humbles He also 
exalts. And this He does by showing us our 
inestimable value in His sight. In effect He is 
always saying, “ See what you are to Me; 
think of what I did for you; think of what I 
gave up ; think of what I suffered and endured ; 
how I was rejected, despised, set at naught; 
think of Gethsemane, of the Judgment-hall 
and of Calvary, and remember that it was for 
you. Consider then your worth to Me. And 
think of what I offer you—forgiveness, pardon, 
peace, the peace of God; yes, and help, grace, 
and eternal life. Think of the opportunity I 
open up to you. It is to stand with Me; to share 
in all that I have, all that lam. It is to be 
like God, My Father, and your Father. It is 


146 


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to be a partaker of the Divine nature, of the 
very life of God.” 

Thought of this helps to give a man some 
true thought of God and of himself. Then, 
too, in telling us of our value to Him, our Lord 
tells us of the value of all men to Him. In 
that He died for all men, “ there is not on earth 
a soul so base but he may obtain a place in 
covenanted grace.” All this you steadfastly 
believe. Must it not then change you, and all 
men to you? Believing this, can you think 
of any man as beyond the love of God ? And 
if God loves men can you despise them ? 
There may indeed be in many that which you 
do not approve, but must you not see in them, 
—no matter how soiled or scarred or marred in 
them the Divine image may be—what Jesus 
Christ saw in them, that is, a soul, a human 
soul of inestimable possibilities, and so, of in¬ 
estimable value ? Humility then comes from 
seeing things as they are. It is at once sight 
and insight. It is not a mean-spirited thing. 
Quite the contrary. It is exalting, glorifying, 
sanctifying. It comes from having some true 
knowledge of God, and of ourselves and our 
fellow men; some knowledge of what we are 
and of what we might be; of what God meant 
us to be, and what Jesus Christ our Lord will 
help us to be, if we will let Him. 


HUMILITY 


147 


“ Let this mind be in you, which was also in 
Christ.” He said, “ Take My yoke upon 
you, and learn of Me: for I am meek and 
lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto 
your souls.” 

Let us try to see ourselves in the light of 
God. Then will we begin to see ourselves as 
we are, and as God would have us be. From 
all conceit and self-assertion; from all blind¬ 
ness of heart; from pride and vain-glory, 
good Lord, deliver us. 

“ The Lord, who left the heavens 
Our life and peace to bring, 

To dwell in lowliness with men 
Their pattern and their King. 

“ He to the lowly soul 

Doth still Himself impart; 

And for His dwelling and His throne 
Chooseth the pure in heart.” 


THE MIND OF THE MASTER. 


Let this mind be in yon, which was also in Christ Jesus. 
—Phil. 2 : 5. 

A great saint wrote a great book on 
“ The Imitation of Christ.” It is a famous 
book, a veritable classic. It has been printed 
and reprinted perhaps oftener than any other, 
save the Bible and the Book of Common 
Prayer. It has instructed and comforted 
thousands now in the Paradise of God, and 
is still helping thousands on their way thith¬ 
erward. But possibly the title of the book 
might have been happier, for the imitation 
of Christ is not necessarily the same thing 
as having the Spirit of Christ, without 
which, we are assured, we are none of His. 
There might be an outward imitation of 
Christ without at all the Spirit of Christ. 

We can imagine some undiscerning soul say¬ 
ing, “ I will imitate Christ; I will live in Naz¬ 
areth, and earn my daily bread in the shop of 
a carpenter.” In a sort of way it would be an 
imitation of Christ, but it would not of itself 
make a man at all like Christ. An outward 
148 


THE MIND OF THE MASTER 149 

imitation is one thing; an interior likeness is 
another and ver}^ different thing. And so, we 
need to heed the apostolic injunction, “ Let 
this mind be in you which was also in 
Christ.” 

“But (some one may say) what was the 
mind of Christ ? ” Vastly more than any one 
of us could say, and yet we can all recall cer¬ 
tain characteristics of the mind of Christ that 
were clearly made manifest in His words and 
in His works. First of all, then, it was the 
mind of Christ to do God’s holy will. His 
first recorded words declare it, and His final 
utterances affirm it. He said, “ I came down 
from heaven not to do Mine own will, but the 
will of Him that sent Me ”: and, when He 
looked back on His work in the world, He 
could look into the Father’s face and say, “ I 
have glorified Thee on the earth: I have 
finished the work which Thou gavest Me to 
do.” 

Clearty then to have this mind which was 
in Christ, is first of all to do God’s will, know¬ 
ing it to be just, holy, perfect; not the will of 
a hard taskmaster, but the will of our Father 
concerning us His children, for our good al¬ 
ways, as St. Paul saith, “ This is the will of 
God, even your sanctification.” 

“ To have the Spirit of Christ ” is to be 


150 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


good; to do good; to be righteous; to be 
true, tender, pitiful, compassionate, helpful. 
He “ went about doing good,” and we will 
too, if we have anything of that mind which 
was in Him. 

To be a blessing, to do good, to seek and to 
save, this was His delight. And so, “ for the 
joy that was set before Him He endured the 
cross, despising the shame.” “ For us men 
and for our salvation He came down from 
heaven,” and in doing that, there was nothing 
that He would not do, nothing that He would 
not endure, if only He could thus bring us to 
the Father. For us He was delivered into 
the hands of wicked men; for us He was 
scourged and shamefully entreated ; for us He 
hung upon the cruel cross, and died the death 
of a felon and a slave. Surely we should love 
Him, for He first loved us. And if we cannot 
love Him it is because there is no love in us. 
If the knowledge of all that He did for us, 
does not move us to do anything for Him, 
then there is no love of God in us. 

“ Let this mind be in you, which was also in 
Christ Jesus.” “ If any man have not the 
Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” 

Would that we might have more of that 
love of God in Christ, that moved Francis 
Xavier to say, 


THE MIND OF THE MASTER 


151 


O my Jesus, Thou didst me 
Upon the cross embrace ; 

For me didst bear the nails and spear, 
And manifold disgrace, 

And griefs and torments numberless, 
And sweat of agony, 

E’en death itself ; and all for me 
Who was Thine enemy. 

Then why, O blessed Jesus Christ, 
Should I not love Thee well ? 

Not for the hope of winning heaven, 
Nor of escaping hell ; 

Not with the hope of gaining aught; 
Not seeking a reward : 

But as Thyself hast loved me, 

O ever-loving Lord! 


MAUNDY THURSDAY. 


This do in remembrance of Me.— St. Luke 22 : 19. 

This is the day of the mandate (Dies Man- 
dati) of our blessed Lord. “ In the night in 
which He was betrayed, He took bread; and 
when He had given thanks, He brake it, and 
gave it to His disciples, saying, Take, eat, this 
is My Body, which is given for you; do this 
in remembrance of Me. Likewise, after sup¬ 
per, He took the cup; and when He had given 
thanks, He gave it to them, saying, Drink ye 
all of this; for this is My Blood of the New 
Testament, which is shed for you, and for 
many, for the remission of sins; do this, as oft 
as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 

It is a request: a last request. Nor is it a 
request only. It is a command. It is plain. 
It is very explicit. Our Lord said, “ Do this.” 
Not to heed what He said is to live in open 
disobedience to Him; and no good Christian 
can do that. We should then come to the 
Holy Communion because He told us to. It is 
our duty ; our unmistakable duty; and for any 
one to live unmindful of a known duty, is to 
live in deadly sin. But we should “ Do this ” 
152 


MAUNDY THURSDAY 


153 


not only because it is a duty, but a great and 
blessed privilege as well. It is an act of faith 
and obedience. It is a solemn memorial of 
“ that meritorious Cross and Passion, whereby 
alone we obtain remission of our sins and are 
made partakers of the Kingdom of heaven. ,, 
“ As oft as ye eat this bread and drink this 
cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come.” 
In this way which the Lord Himself ordained, 
we do show His death, and that not simply to 
His people here on earth, but before the Divine 
Majesty and high heaven. That which our 
blessed Lord does for us in heaven, we do here 
on earth. By His very presence in the heaven 
of heavens, He pleads there His great once- 
offered sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. 
And this which He does for us there, He has 
commanded us to do here. “ He did institute, 
and in His holy gospel command us to con¬ 
tinue—a perpetual memory of that His precious 
death and sacrifice until His coming again.” 
And this He did for our sake. In coming to 
the Holy Communion then, we honor and obey 
Him. We do what He has told us to do, and 
in this most solemn act of Christian worship, do 
show forth before Almighty God our one only, 
valid plea for forgiveness, grace, help and 
blessing. All this we receive, according to the 
sure word of His promise; yes, and more than 


154 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


this. In this Eucharistic Sacrifice not only do 
we have fellowship with Christ our Lord and 
“ the blessed company of all faithful people ” 
here below, and those who have departed this 
life in the true faith of God’s holy Name, but 
herein “ with angels and archangels, and with 
all the company of heaven, we laud and mag¬ 
nify God’s glorious Name.” 

And more even: in this Holy Sacrament we 
have union with Almighty God through Jesus 
Christ His Son our Lord. Just how the liv¬ 
ing Lord gives Himself to His people in this 
way of His appointment, we cannot know, nor 
do we need to know, but it has always been 
the unmistakable teaching of His Church that 
His true followers do thus receive Him to the 
strengthening and refreshing of their souls. 

If then we are His followers we will gladly 
and thankfully “ Do this ” as the Lord hath 
enjoined. If wise unto salvation we will say, 
“ I must come to Christ in this Holy Sacra¬ 
ment and thus offer to Almighty God that 
sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving which is 
my bounden duty and service.” 

It is not only a duty but a privilege, a great 
and blessed privilege. No tongue can tell of 
all that Christ our Lord has done “ for us men 
and for our salvation.” Here is something 
that I can do for Him in token of my faith 


MAUNDY THURSDAY 


155 


and fealty. Nor for Him only, but for my. 
self; for the much-needed strengthening of 
my soul’s life. It was for our sake that He 
said, “ Do this in remembrance of Me.” 

Pardon, grace, spiritual strength, light, peace, 
love, access to God, a place in His great family, 
the whole family in heaven and earth, likeness 
to Christ here, complete final assimilation to 
Him, eternal life and blessedness, all these are 
among the benefits that are ours, or may be 
ours, if we will to have it so, through that 
“ meritorious Cross and Passion, whereby alone 
we obtain remission of our sins, and are made 
partakers of the Kingdom of heaven.” 

Remembering then these inestimable bene¬ 
fits, I desire to be present at and personally 
have part in all the blessings received by the 
faithful in this Holy Eucharistic. I know I am 
unworthy but I can plead the worthiness, the 
infinite worthiness of Jesus Christ, knowing 
that that plea can never be made in vain. 

“ Just as I am, without one plea, 

But that Thy blood was shed for me, 

And that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee, 

O Lamb of God, I come. 

“ Just as I am, and waiting not 
To rid my soul of one dark blot, 

To Thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot, 

O Lamb of God, I come.” 


“ WHAT SHALL I DO THEN WITH 
JESUS, WHICH IS CALLED CHRIST?” 

What shall I do then with Jesus, which is called Christ? 
—St. Matt. 27: 22. 

It was the question of Pontius Pilate, the 
Roman governor. In asking it he asked the 
question of all the after ages. He had no 
thought of doing it, but he did. It has echoed 
and reechoed in the minds of men from that 
day to this, and will until Christ shall come 
to make an end of His redemptive work and 
usher in “ the new heavens and the new earth 
wherein dwelleth righteousness.” 

Pilate did not know it, but he asked the 
question which you and I, and all men, must 
ask and answer in some way. It was so 
ordered from the first. As at the Presenta¬ 
tion of the Holy Child in the Temple, Simeon 
took Him up in his arms, and blessed God, in a 
grand strain of prophetic utterance, he said, 
“ This child is set for the fall and rising again 
of many in Israel ” : and at once the prophecy 
began to be fulfilled. As soon as he heard of 
Him, Herod, the king, said what he would do 
with Him. And so, to make sure of killing 
156 


WHAT SHALL I DO WITH JESUS 157 


Him, Herod “sent forth, and slew all the 
children that were in Bethlehem, and in all 
the coasts thereof.” But it was not until 
Jesus began His public ministry that men 
generally began to say what they would do 
with Him. He said to one and to another, 
—to Andrew and Peter, and James and John 
—“ Follow Me,” and they followed Him. 
They said what they would do with Jesus. 
They would believe in Him; would obey 
Him; would leave all and follow Him. A 
little later Jesus, “ saw a man named Mat¬ 
thew sitting at the receipt of custom; and He 
saith unto him, Follow Me. And he arose 
and followed Him.” Still later—“ A certain 
ruler asked Him, saying, Good Master, what 
shall I do to inherit eternal life? . . . 

Jesus, beholding him, loved him, and said unto 
him, One thing thou lackest; go thy way, sell 
that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou 
shalt have treasure in heaven ; and come, take 
up thy cross and be My disciple. And he 
was sad at that saying, and went away 
grieved: for he had great possessions.” In 
effect he said what he would do with Jesus. 
He would not follow Him ; would not be His 
disciple at such cost. He valued his money 
more than he did treasure in heaven. He 
went his way to his great possessions, and 


158 THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 

Jesus went His way—to “the hill called 
Calvary.” Everywhere, more and more, men 
were obliged to say what they would do with 
Jesus. He said, “ He that is not with Me is 
against Me.” “ So there was a division among 
the people concerning Him.” He claimed the 
love and loyalty of all men; said, “ Whoso¬ 
ever shall confess Me before men, him 
will I confess before My Father which is in 
heaven. But whosoever shall deny Me before 
men, him will I also deny before My Father 
which is in heaven.” So it was that every¬ 
where He went, men were obliged to take 
sides, and be for Him or against Him. The 
scribes and Pharisees never hesitated for a 
moment in saying what they would do with 
Him. They would kill Him. Caiaphas spoke 
for them all in saying, “ It is expedient for us 
that one man should die for the people.” 
They would, at any cost, be rid of Him as 
they supposed. Judas had decided what he 
would do with Him. He would betray Him 
—for thirty pieces of silver. 

The members of the Sanhedrim were per¬ 
sonally and officially obliged to say what 
they would do with Jesus. “ They, all, con¬ 
demned Him to death.” But, as they could not 
pronounce sentence of death, they led Him to 
Pilate. Having examined Him Pilate said, 


WHAT SHALL I DO WITH JESUS 159 


“ I find no fault in Him.” “ He knew that for 
envy they had delivered Him.” He did not 
want to do anything with Him. So he sent 
Him to Herod. Herod knew what He would 
do with Him. He “ set Him at naught, and 
mocked Him, and arrayed Him in a gorgeous 
robe, and sent Him again to Pilate.” 

Pilate was more anxious than ever to de¬ 
liver Him. But the Jewish rulers obliged him 
to say what he would do with Jesus: they said, 
“ If thou let this man go thou art not Caesar’s 
friend.” It was with him a question of ex¬ 
pediency or duty. He yielded, as many a man 
would in such a case. He thought he could 
not jeopardize his interests at the imperial 
court. To be sure “ he took water and washed 
his hands before the multitude, saying, I am 
innocent of the blood of this just person.” 

Nevertheless, “ released he Barabbas unto 
them ; and when he had scourged Jesus, he 
delivered Him to be crucified.” And so he 
made himself infamous forever. The world 
over, wherever the Creed of Christendom is 
said, we witness to what Pilate did with 
Jesus; say, “He suffered under Pontius 
Pilate.” Not Pilate only, but Caiaphas, 
Annas, Herod, the Sanhedrim, the people, all 
were obliged to say what they would do with 
Jesus. 


160 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


They all did something with Him. The 
very malefactors that were crucified with 
Him, were obliged to say what they would 
do with Him. So, one of them died cursing 
Him, and at the last, the other confessed Him, 
saying, “ Lord, remember me, when Thou 
comest into Thy Kingdom.” 

Nor is it otherwise with us. We are obliged 
to say what we will do with Jesus. And it 
must be a more momentous matter with us 
even than with those of Jerusalem so long ago, 
and that because we know so much more about 
Him than many of them did. He prayed that 
those should be forgiven who drove the cruel 
nails through His holy hands, “ for (He said) 
they know not what they do.” That is not 
our case. We know what we do. We know 
what Jesus has done for the world. We know 
what the world was; how fierce, how cruel, how 
ruthless ! We know that in so far as light, and 
hope, progress and blessing have come, all is 
traceable to Him, the world’s Saviour. Not 
only do we know what He has done but what 
He is doing. We have seen human lives made 
sweet and beautiful with the beauty of holiness. 
We know that what He has done for others He 
would fain do for us, if only we would let 
Him. Upon us, as upon those who crucified 
Him so long ago in Jerusalem, lies the neces- 


WHAT SHALL I DO WITH JESUS 161 


sity of saying what we will do with Jesus. 
He claims faith, fealty, service; says, “ Learn 
of Me,” “ Follow Me,” “ I go to prepare a place 
for you, that where I am, there ye may be 
also.” In a word He olfers us salvation, now 
and here, and forever : and every one must say 
what he will do with Jesus, which is called 
Christ. He says, “Behold, I stand at the 
door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, 
and open the door, I will come in to him, and 
will sup with him, and he with Me.” Will you 
let Him in ? Dare you keep Him out? Will 
you receive Him, or reject Him? Will you 
follow Him, or go your own way, “ without 
God, and without Christ in the world ? He 
says, “ My sheep hear My voice and I know 
them, and they follow Me; and I give unto 
them eternal life, and they shall never perish, 
neither shall any pluck them out of My hand.” 

“Jesus, Saviour of my soul, 

Let me to Thy bosom fly, 

While the waves of trouble roll, 

While the tempest still is high : 

“ Hide me, O my Saviour hide, 

Till the storm of life be past: 

Safe into the haven guide, 

Oh, receive my soul at last.” 


“ THE SPIRITS IN PRISON.” 


Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the un¬ 
just, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in 
the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: by which also He went 
and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime 
were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God 
waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, 
wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water.— 
1 Peter 3 : 18, 19. 

When, as on this still day, the sacred body 
of our Saviour rested in the sealed sepulchre, 
where was His holy soul ? It was in Paradise 
as He said to the penitent malefactor, “ To-day 
shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.” And so 
we say in the Creed, “ He descended into hell,” 
that is Hades, the covered place, the place of 
departed spirits, the unseen spirit world. In 
our ordinary speech the words Paradise and 
“ Hell ” seem to tell of utterly opposite condi¬ 
tions, but we should remember that as used in 
the Creed, the word “ hell ” simply means the 
covered place, not at all necessarily a place of 
punishment. The words Paradise and “ Hell ” 
(Hades) were commonly used among the Jews 
to describe the place where the souls of the 
162 


“THE SPIRITS IN PRISON ” 163 

righteous rest from their labors. So in say¬ 
ing, as we do in the Creed, “ He descended 
into hell,” we simply confess what the New 
Testament teaches : and that is that when on 
the cross our blessed Lord said, “It is fin¬ 
ished,” and bowed His head and died, He went 
into the place of departed spirits. In refer¬ 
ring to it St. Peter says, “ Christ also once 
suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that 
He might bring us to God, being put to death 
in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: by 
which also He went and preached unto the 
spirits in prison.” 

Here then we have the record of a mercy of 
which no one would have presumed to think, 
but that it is expressly revealed in Holy Scrip¬ 
ture. The infinite Love has been able to 
reach, and presumably to rescue, the souls of 
the departed even in that unseen spirit world 
of which we know so little. Those that the 
apostle tells of were “ sometime disobedient.” 
They had not profited by the preaching of the 
patriarch, “when once the long-suffering of 
God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark 
was a preparing.” They were disobedient; 
and so, drowned in the flood, they passed on 
into the place of the departed. The apostle 
tells of them as “ in prison,” that is, under 
guard. The meanwhile the slow centuries 


164 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


passed by. They were forgotten of men, but 
not of God. When on the cross our Lord had 
made His great once-offered sacrifice for the 
sins of the whole world, He descended into 
hell; into that Paradise where He said He 
would that day be with the penitent male¬ 
factor. What He did there we know not save 
that “ He went and preached unto the spirits 
in prison, which were sometime disobedient, 
when once the long-suffering of God waited in 
the days of Noah.” That He preached to 
them of forgiveness and grace is matter of 
more than inference, as it is said, “ for this 
cause was the Gospel preached also to them 
that are dead, that they might be judged ac¬ 
cording to men in the flesh, but live according 
to God in the spirit.” The Gospel then was 
not only preached to the living, but to the dead, 
and the purpose of that preaching was that 
they might stand on the same footing as those 
to whom salvation had been offered here on 
the earth ; “ that they might be judged accord¬ 
ing to men in the flesh,” that is, by the same 
rule as others more favorably circumstanced, 
namely, by the Gospel message itself. Let us 
thank God, then, for this illuminative record 
of His mercy to those long gone souls “ which 
were sometime disobedient, when once the 
long-suffering of God waited in the days of 


“the spirits in prison” 165 

Noah.” Let us be glad that we are told at 
least this much of our Lord’s merciful work 
in the place of the departed. It may have 
been, and probably was, vastly more; but this 
only has been made known concerning it, and 
where revelation has not spoken it is not our 
part to try to be wise above what is written. 

Still we know that our ever-merciful Master 
is now what He was then; is “Jesus Christ 
the same yesterday, to-day, and forever ”: and 
so we know that He is as merciful now as He 
was then. He went after those lost sheep 
until He found them—found them in that “ far 
stretching land.” We may then well believe 
that He will likewise follow every lost sheep 
until He find it, if so be He can bring it home 
to God. And, too, this that He did in the 
place of the departed, it may be our part to 
help Him still do, when we shall go hence and 
be no more seen here among men. Surely we 
will have some work to do for God there: and, 
no doubt, it will be a wider work, and of 
larger opportunities than here. The gifts that 
He has given us for our work here, may per¬ 
haps be still used for Him there, under far 
more favorable conditions for ministering to 
spirits “ which sometime were disobedient ” on 
their way through “this miserable and naughty 
world.” Still we are to remember that the se- 


166 


THROUGH THE FORTY DAYS 


cret things belong unto the Lord our God. We 
can leave them all to Him. Soon we will 
know how it is; know of our own selves. At 
the last, O Lord Jesus Christ, give us place in 
Paradise, any least, lowest place, only so it be 
in sight of Thee—in “ that still country where 
the hailstones and the fire showers do not 
reach, and the heavy laden at length lay down 
their load.” 


“ When my last hour cometh, 
Fraught with strife and pain, 
When my dust returneth 
To the dust again ; 

On Thy truth relying, 

Through that mortal strife, 
Jesu, take me, dying, 

To eternal life.” 


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